Football
ESPN staff 8y

Pellegrini praises Joe Hart as penalty save helps Man City beat Gladbach

Manuel Pellegrini lauded Joe Hart's "brilliant" performance as the Manchester City goalkeeper saved a penalty to help his side earn a 2-1 Champions League victory at Borussia Monchengladbach on Wednesday.

Sergio Aguero struck a last-gasp penalty winner as City came from behind to ignite their European campaign in Germany, with Hart earlier saving a spot kick from Gladbach forward Raffael.

Hart plunged low to his right to deny Raffael after Nicolas Otamendi was adjudged to have fouled the forward, and made a number of impressive saves in open play to hand Pellegrini's side a vital win following their opening defeat to Juventus.

"We knew that Borussia have a very fast team," BBC Sport reports Pellegrini as saying. "Joe Hart made some brilliant saves. It could have been 4-4 after an hour but then we dominated the game. We got a little bit of luck at the end but we have had plenty of bad luck recently."

Hart was critical of his side's performance despite the three points, saying: "We didn't play well today, we were disjointed as we had been in the last few games. But we deserved to win, we had some really good chances. It may have come late but Sergio Aguero is a cool guy and he will score.

"Kevin De Bruyne warned us about [Monchengladbach], they have some good movement and work themselves into the ground. We won and it puts us in a good position.

"For the penalty no stone is unturned. I've seen a lot of penalties from a lot of players -- we have good guys in the analysis department. We always take the scenic route in Europe!"

Former Wolfsburg midfielder De Bruyne was also scathing of City's display, adding: "We only played the last half hour, in the first hour it was very difficult for us. This was our worst match this season."

Information from the Press Association was used in this report.

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