Hart's performance was very important: Man City manager Pellegrini after Moechengladbach win

Manchester City coach Manuel Pellegrini is hoping for more goals from striker Sergio Aguero after the Argentine’s 90th-minute penalty sealed their 2-1 comeback win at Borussia Moechengladbach. After striker Lars Stindl had put Gladbach ahead at Borussia Park, City came from behind thanks to Andreas Christensen’s own goal, then Aguero’s late spot-kick in Wednesday’s Champions League match. [caption id=“attachment_2451410” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Joe Hart saves a penalty from Borussia Monchengladbach’s Raffael. Reuters[/caption] With 26 goals in 31 games, Aguero was the Premier League’s top scorer last season, but this was only his third goal in ten games. Pelligrini praised his 27-year-old striker for keeping a cool head to drill home the last-minute penalty which breathed life back into City’s European aspirations to leave them third in Group D. “We hope he can score a few more, it’s not easy to score in the last minute and he was rewarded for working hard,” said Pellegrini. Pellegrini also singled out City’s England goalkeeper Joe Hart, who blocked Raffael’s first-half penalty attempt, then saved first-half shots from the Brazilian and Germany winger Patrick Herrmmann. - Hart praise - “Joe made three very important saves for the penalty and after that he produced two more good saves,” said the City coach. “Maybe their keeper didn’t have the same saves, but we missed two very clear chances and I think the performance from Joe was very important.” Second-placed City host Newcastle United on Saturday in their last Premier League game for a fortnight and Pellegrini wants to get some of his walking wounded back fit. Captain Vincent Kompany, Eliaquim Mangala, Gael Clichy, Fabian Delph and Wilfried Bony all missed the Gladbach game. Stand-in skipper Yaya Toure only lasted a half at Borussia Park after aggravating a leg injury, while David Silva came off with 25 minutes to go. “Yaya wanted to play from the beginning, but I think 45 minutes was the maximum he could do, same thing for Silva, 65 minutes was enough for him,” said Pellegrini. “We need to intergrate a few players as we have a lot of injuries, it’s important to beat Newcastle and then we have 15 days after that when players go to their national teams.” - Gladbach setback - Having opened their debut Champions League campaign with a 3-0 defeat at Sevilla, which included two penalties, Gladbach remain bottom of Group D as they search to replace ex-coach Lucien Favre. City are now third only on goal-difference after leaders Juventus enjoyed a 2-0 win at home to Sevilla on Wednesday as Manuel Pellegrini’s Citizens bounced back from their opening 2-1 defeat at home to the Italians. Pellegrini said their home and away games against Sevilla are key. “I don’t think that we just have to talk about the two games against Sevilla, our next game is at home to them and it’s important not to drop points, but I think it will be tough until the end as they are all very tough teams in this group,” said the City boss. The result is a set back for Gladbach after their first defeat under caretaker coach Andre Schubert following two Bundesliga wins since Favre quit on September 20 after five German league defeats. This was Borussia’s first European match at this level for 37 years and their first defeat to English opposition at home on the continent in six matches. They face a mountain to climb to get out of the group as they take on Juventus away, then home in their next two Champions League games. “The bottom line first of all is how disappointed we are to have not taken anything from this game,” said Schubert. “We kept in the game, defended well, but we still lost.” AFP