Manchester City left it late to win a second successive Champions League game, with Kevin De Bruyne scoring a minute into stoppage time to give them a 2-1 win over Sevilla at the Etihad Stadium in Group D on Wednesday (21 October).
Sevilla took the lead after 30 minutes when the impressive Ukrainian striker Yevhen Konoplyanka took advantage of some poor City defending to sweep the ball past Joe Hart, but City were level six minutes later. The equaliser came when a shot from Wilfried Bony deflected off the foot and shin of Adil Rami and into the net and that looked to be that until De Bruynes last gasp goal.
De Bruynes goal came even later than Agueros against Borussia Moenchengladbach with the Belgians neatly-executed left-foot angled shot coming after 91 minutes to give City victory when it looked as though Sevilla were about to leave with a deserved point.
De Bruyne has had a huge impact since arriving for £55m ($84.78m) from VfL Wolfsburg at the end of August and he played a defining role in this game too, after coach Manuel Pellegrini pushed him up front in search of the winner.
I think it was a close game, very difficult for both teams to create chances as we played very concentrated with a lot of intensity so it was not easy, Pellegrini told a news conference after the match. In the first half we played better in the moment they scored where we had some clear chances but we did not score. It was important to draw in the first half. The second half was difficult for either team to create a chance but finally we improved in the last 10 minutes and we had the character to try and win the game till the end without giving the space to a very good team like Seville today.
City also grabbed a late winner when they travelled to Wolfsburg earlier this month, and Pellergini appeared pleased the team were finally stringing results together in Europe after a patchy record in previous seasons.
It is important because we won both games in the last minute and both games we were one goal down, he said. I think there has been a lot if criticism of this team in Europe but I think that the last two games we played in Europe reflects we have the character to try and win and we will continue to improve our play, but for me the character and concentration and intensity in Europe is very important also.
