Manchester City gave themselves a good chance of qualifying for the knock-out stage of the Champions League for the third year running after Kevin De Bruyne scored a last minute winner to beat Sevilla 2-1
It wasn't the most convincing performances from the side who sit top of the premier league, who familiarly had to come from 1-0 down to win in the last minute, just like they did in the previous tie against German side Borussia Monchengladbach.
Sometimes in football it's not about how you win, it's that you win and Man City did just that and it puts them in a great position after the other two teams in the group Juventus and Monchengladbach played out a goalless draw in Turin
City next go to Sevilla and had they only drawn or even worse lost it would have been a mountain to climb once again
Unfortunately the blue men left question marks over their champions league credentials after failing to put in a convincing performance again in Europe.
There's no doubt in the Premier League the Etihad stadium is a fortress and a place many teams fear coming to, stretching back to the start of the 2012-13 season City have lost just 6 out of a possible 61 at home and on many occasions have blown teams away, no more evident than in the past two games where they beat Bournemouth 5-1 and Newcastle 6-1
It goes without saying than the quality of opponent (no disrespect to Bournemouth or Newcastle) is a lot harder in the Champions League but if City want to be known as one of the best sides in the world and with the quality in their squad they should, they need to improve.
In sixteen home games in the CL the blues have only won six and they don't seem to be learning from their mistakes, once again manager Manuel Pellegrini went with two upfront despite top scorer Sergio Aguero out injured
It made for a free flowing game and again they looked over ran in midfield
Against better opposition City would have been torn to pieces and once the formation was changed they went on and won the game
That being said without sounding a bit like Brendan Rodgers the blues showed great character to come from behind and win, and may give them the confidence to push on after two successive victories.
Some could argue that without arguably their three most important players David Silva, Sergio Aguero and Vincent Kompany to get the three points was some achievement, with the money spent though you would expect the replacements to do the job
David Silva was probably the least missed as Kevin De Bruyne as come in and been sensational, a player of the quality of Aguero will always be missed but in the place of Kompany was two £30million signings both with champions league quality
Vincent Kompany being left on the bench raised a few eyebrows, whether he was being rested for the Manchester Derby on Sunday or whether Pellegrini is making a statement remains to be seen
You would still expect Otamendi and Mangala to do the job but at times looked incredibly lethargic and it goes to show how crucial a leader like Kompany can be.
Manchester City cannot be known as the new boys any more, it's time they start learning from their mistakes and start controlling matches at the Etihad and winning convincingly if they are to have any hope of progressing in the tournament, the exact same could be said for all English sides in Europe
A worrying statistic came out the other day that English players are less represented in the 2015/16 Champions League than those from Israel and Belarus with only 12 compared to 59 from Spain.
Uefa have also reported that they will open disciplinary proceedings against City after fans booed the Champions League anthem before the game, you would perhaps think they would be too concerned by racism or corruption to focus on fans booing a song but evidently not
Manchester City fans will be hoping their players can carry them through to the knockout stages so they can boo that anthem just a few more times.
Source : DSG
Source: DSG