FULL TIME: Borussia Mönchengladbach 1-2 Manchester City
But the hosts do nothing with the ball, and City have their win! What a game! What drama! City were second best until going behind, at which point they eventually showed their class. And they deservedly turned it round, such was the force at which they came at a previously dominant Gladbach. Suddenly the picture looks a whole lot brighter! They’re on three points in the table alongside Sevilla, and can start dreaming of better days again. Poor Gladbach are rock bottom, and perhaps should have wrapped up that game before City were allowed to turn it around. But in truth it was one of those matches that defied logic. It could have ended 5-5, or 5-0 to either team. Can Mönchengladbach play in this competition every year, please?
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90 min +6: City lose the ball from the corner. Ridiculous! Gladbach can launch one last attack!
90 min +5: The swab is finally successfully inserted.
90 min +4: City are waiting to take their corner. The Gladbach physio is attempting to cram a swab up Sommer’s poor beak.
90 min +3: There are only a few seconds of the two minutes remaining, but Sommer is bleeding quite heavily, so this might take a while. Gladbach have no subs left. City replace Sterling with Zabaleta.
90 min +2: Sterling rolls the ball down the left for De Bruyne, who fires a low ball to the near post. Aguero, rushing in, looks to flick home from close range. But the ball pings off Sommer’s hip, and out for a corner. A stunning save! And a brave one too, because he’s taken one on the nose from Wendt, who was rushing back.
90 min +1: There will be two added minutes. One’s already elapsed!
GOAL! Borussia Mönchengladbach 1-2 Manchester City (Aguero 90 pen)
Aguero slams the ball into the bottom-right corner! Unstoppable! City have turned this around magnificently!
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Penalty to City!
89 min: The ball is at Aguero’s feet on the penalty spot. He drops a shoulder to the right, and attempts to scoot past Johnson. Johnson hangs a leg out, and clips Aguero, who goes down. The referee quite correctly points to the spot. Aguero will pick himself up and take the spot kick.
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88 min: Juventus have made it 2-0 against Sevilla, Zaza with their second. Unless something strange happens, they’re going to go top with six points. Sevilla on three. And as this match stands, it’ll be the Foals and the Citizens on one point. Unless someone can grab a winner. With this in mind, Navas earns a corner on the right. From which ...
87 min: Dominguez is booked for a foul on a scampering Aguero in the centre circle.
86 min: Traore cuts in from the right, a lovely dribble. He loops a ball across for Hahn, who is in space in the left-hand portion of the area. He attempts to smash one across Hart and into the top right. It balloons off Sagna and out for a corner, which is easily cleared. This game has been brilliant from the get-go. It’s never let up.
85 min: Gladbach replace Dahoud with Nordtveit.
84 min: Brilliance by Navas down the right, turning on the jets to reach the byline. He digs out a fine cross, which is met by a towering header from ... Sterling. The wee man’s effort from the penalty spot isn’t far over the bar at all. That’s so close. Marvellous.
83 min: City go up the other end and nearly score, Aguero threading a shot through a thicket of players from the edge of the area, the ball missing the left-hand post by inches. A wonderful attempt.
81 min: Raffael holds the ball down the inside-left channel. He’s waiting for Hahn to come back onside. Hahn does so, and then bending his run, turns back down the channel, released by Raffael’s pass. The flag goes up for offside. That was a borderline decision at best, Demichelis looked suspiciously level. But City escape.
79 min: Kolarov strides down the left having intercepted a loose Dahoud pass in the middle of the park. His low cross nearly finds Aguero at the near post, but a corner will have to suffice. From the set piece, Otamendi causes more bother, but the ball squirts out on the right.
78 min: Korb is replaced by Traore.
77 min: Navas cuts in from the right. He lays off for De Bruyne, who has his back to goal, just to the right of the D. He rolls the ball back for Fernandinho, who looks to power a curler into the top right. It’s over the bar, but not by much. It’s Gladbach’s turn to look porous at the back. They’re rocking. Can City take advantage?
76 min: It’s all City. Gladbach can’t get a touch.
74 min: Sterling skedaddles into space down the left. A low cross is met by Aguero, but not convincingly. The ball breaks to Navas on the right. He can’t get a shot away, though. City are soon coming back at Gladbach, Aguero twisting and turning Christensen down the left. The full back stands tall, though, and blocks the eventual shot. The ball breaks to De Bruyne, who attempts to lash one in from a tight angle. Nope! But at the moment, there only looks like one winner. Strange game football, huh?
72 min: Hahn comes on for the hosts, replacing Herrmann.
71 min: Navas and Aguero combine down the right and nearly open the hosts up. The ball’s pulled back to Fernandinho, who fizzes a low diagonal shot inches wide left. City are getting on top here, after being over-run for the majority of the match. What a win this would be if they could force it.
69 min: City are very much on the front foot now. De Bruyne whistles a ball into the Gladbach box from the left. Nobody’s taken a chance to meet it.
67 min: Korb is booked for repeated niggling. That goal, though. Demichelis and Otamendi both scored within seconds of each other, and yet neither may end up with the credit. They’ve both been utterly appalling at the back, so it’s just as well they’ve chipped in at the other end.
GOAL! Borussia Mönchengladbach 1-1 Manchester City (Otamendi 65)
What a farce this is! De Bruyne takes the corner. Demichelis meets it, and thighs powerfully into the top left. Korb scissor kicks it out, but it’s miles over the line. The goal, preposterously, isn’t given. But no matter! Because the ball drops to Otamendi, who volleys home from the penalty spot! That took a huge deflection off Christensen, who was trying to head it clear, but Otamendi celebrates an astonishing equaliser!
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64 min: Sagna earns a corner down the right. Before it can be taken, Silva is replaced by Navas. And then, from the set piece ...
62 min: Sterling is upended down the left. Kolarov’s free kick is headed clear by Johnson. Dahoud breaks powerfully down the right, then loops a cross into the middle. Were it not overhit, Raffael was free on goal. City are a defensive wreck.
61 min: Kolarov makes a song and dance of clearing a simple ball down the right. He’s nearly robbed by Herrmann, who would have been clear on goal. He sort of heads it back upfield, but only to Korb, who was about to slide Herrmann free until a friendly flag shot up. A foul on Kolarov. The home fans raise hell, as well they might. City a bit lucky there.
59 min: Sterling sashays in from the left and has a dig. It’s blocked, but breaks to De Bruyne, who has a go himself. That one’s deflected out left for a corner, which again is easily dealt with by Gladbach. But that’s a little better from City.
57 min: Kolarov makes good down the left and earns a corner. But the set piece is easily cleared. Sommer hasn’t looked that dominant, but he’s not had that much to do tonight. Or not half as much as Hart, anyway. City really need to up their game.
55 min: A ball bouncing around the Gladbach area. Sommer should come out to claim, but hesitates. Herrmann, level with his left-hand post, ridiculously lets the ball bounce again. Silva sticks a leg out, and his effort squirts wide left from close range. That would have been the softest equaliser. But it should give City succour: they’re not the only ones utterly clueless in defence.
GOAL! Borussia Mönchengladbach 1-0 Manchester City (Stindl 54)
Well this has been coming, hasn’t it. Korb is sent into acres down the right. Kolarov is on holiday. Korb has all the time he needs to carefully slide a ball inside for Stindl, who opens his body up and sidefoots powerfully into the bottom right, first time. City in all sorts of bother now.
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51 min: Raffael slides a cute pass down the middle for Stindl, who is denied a shot by Fernando. From the corner, the ball falls to the feet of Xhaka on the penalty spot. He slaps a shot goalwards, but it’s blocked by Fernandinho. It slaps his left hand, but it’s not a penalty. Probably the correct decision for once, because the City midfielder didn’t move his arm to the ball, and there wasn’t much space between the players. From the rebound, City break upfield, but Silva is unable to work enough space down the inside-left channel to take a shot. This is one of the most ludicrously entertaining, open matches I’ve ever seen in the Champions League.
49 min: Silva and De Bruyne combine down the left to feed Kolarov, whose low fizzer into the middle is deflected out for a corner. Nothing comes from the set piece. A feeling here that City will have to score one or two, because that defence doesn’t look steady at all. “I thought you might be interested to know that ZDF in Germany has - unusually, as they normally opt for the German team that’s at home on the Wednesday night - gone for the Manchester United match rather than Mönchengladbach versus City, reports Wilson Beuys. “I don’t know whether this means the ZDF big hats think United are a bigger draw for German viewers, Wolfsburg are newsworthy because of the VW emissions scandal, City are unpopular arrivistes, or Gladbach have never been a big draw since Günter Netzer left.”
48 min: City are struggling to string more than a couple of passes together right now. Fernando, sitting deep, is nearly robbed by Dahoud. It’s lucky he managed to retain possession, because there was nobody else back for City.
46 min: City’s defence is still a ragged nonsense. A high offside line is easily sprung by Raffael down the left. He’s free! He enters the box and looks to curl one into the top right. Hart, already City’s man of the match by a ludicrous distance, parries this one. Raffael should have given him no chance of saving, though.
And we're off again!
City get the ball rolling. More of the same, please, teams, only with added goals. City have made a change: Yaya Toure is replaced by Fernando. “I’ve had to mute the BT Sport commentary,” writes Salfordian Blue. “Robbie Savage is the sentient [Censored – Guardian Proctology Editor] dangling from the [Censored – Guardian Proctology Editor] of punditry. He’s only slightly less annoying than our defending.”
Half-time entertainment: Any excuse to flag up the classic documentary City!, filmed not that long after these two clubs last met in 1979. “I ain’t going to have people who are going about and, excuse the expression, pissing about and sort of flouting the image of Manchester City about, I don’t think that’s right.” John Bond there. How did he not win anything at Maine Road?
HALF TIME: Borussia Mönchengladbach 0-0 Manchester City
It really is 0-0. No idea how. No point asking. But never mind the scoreline, this is as entertaining as football gets. No flipping! You’re not going to flip, are you.
44 min: Corner for City down the right. De Bruyne takes, and finds Fernandinho, who heads harmlessly over from 12 yards.
43 min: A high ball hooked into the Gladbach area from the right. Sterling, cutting in from the left, has space, ten yards out and level with the post. He looks to power a header downwards and into the bottom right, but can only guide it into the grateful arms of Sommer.
42 min: Kolarov, Sterling and Toure ping pretty triangles down the left, nearly opening the hosts up. Not quite, but nice to watch. Elsewhere in this group, Morata has given Juventus the lead against Sevilla. “I had a double take reading the 30 minute comment,”writes Daniel Johnson. “It may have been Freudian, reading that Sterling was trotting back to Anfield. We can dream, I guess.”
40 min: In a parallel universe, the score is 5-5.
38 min: Silva scores three rugby points from a position down the inside-right channel, 30 yards out.
37 min: Gladbach should have another penalty. Stindl dances into the area down the right. Fernandinho slides in rashly. He clips Stindl, who goes over. The referee gets this one wrong as well, booking Stindl for a dive. That’s an appalling decision, and City are as fortunate there as they were hard done by earlier.
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36 min: Raffael dances down the middle of the park. Brilliant close control. He draws the entire City defence towards him, then flicks a pass down the right channel to ping Herrmann free. He should score, but his attempted flick over Hart is blocked by the keeper, who is in one of his Barcelona moods tonight.
34 min: Xhaka sends a sliderule pass down the inside-right channel to open City up. Raffael is free in the area, albeit facing a tight angle. He pearls his shot on target, but Hart is out to the left-hand corner of his six-yard box to spread himself, in a Peter Schmeichel starfish, and smother. A magnificent save. The resulting corner comes to nothing.
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32 min: Silva chips a ball down the right wing to release the busy De Bruyne, who volleys a strange attempted cross miles into the stand behind the goal. The home crowd enjoyed that one.
30 min: This is getting daft now. Sterling scuttles into a huge empty space down the left. He enters the box. He should shoot, but opts to cross. A witless ball goes nowhere near Aguero in the middle, or De Bruyne coming in from the right. Sterling has the good grace to look a bit embarrassed as he picks himself up off the turf and trots back upfield.
29 min: Now there’s a burst of pace from Aguero down the left. He wheechs a shot across Sommer and out to the right of goal.
28 min: Lovely play from City down the right. Fernandinho slips the ball down the wing to Toure, who in turn feeds Silva, who shuttles the ball further forward to De Bruyne. The ball’s pulled back for Aguero, but hacked clear by Christensen.
27 min: Herrmann looks to burst down the right wing, and is cynically checked by Kolarov. The City defender is very fortunate to escape a booking there.
25 min: The penalty miss hasn’t silenced the home crowd. The atmosphere is bubbling away nicely. A rolling boil. It must be influencing the freeform nonsense on the pitch. It must be. Raffael strides down the left and has a dig from the best part of 30 yards. It’s wide right and high, but he should never have been given the opportunity to shoot. City’s defence is a bit of a shambles.
22 min: Herrmann is sent into acres down the right. He’s clear in City’s box, and pulls the ball back for Stindl, who blasts carelessly wide right and high from 12 yards. What a miss! However it transpires Hermann was many yards offside. This is breathless.
20 min: ... Hart collects and bowls the ball out down the right. Suddenly - because Gladbach have committed everyone forward - Aguero is tearing clear down the inside-right channel! He’s one on one with Sommer! He has to score (pt. II). But he whistles his low shot across the keeper and wide of the left-hand post! How on earth is this game still 0-0? It could quite easily be 3-3!
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Penalty saved!
19 min: Hart saves Raffael’s penalty! It’s sent towards the bottom left corner. Hart reads it, and punches it back across the face of goal. It’s knocked out for a corner on the right. From which ...
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Penalty to Gladbach!
18 min: Raffael makes his way through a couple of tackles down the right. He enters the box. Otamendi sticks his leg out. Raffael goes over it, but was heading towards the turf very early in anticipation. That’s a very cheap penalty. I’m not sure that’s the correct decision at all. Raffael was going down, looking for that.
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17 min: De Bryune bustles down the right and fires a low cross into the area. It’s easily cleared by Wendt. Sterling, out on the left, was a bit passive there. If he’d come inside, he might have latched onto that ball in.
15 min: Sterling looks up for this. He battles down the left and is eventually bowled over by a frustrated Xhaka. Free kick, and a chance for City to load the box. Silva takes. Otamendi nearly gets his head on the ball, ten yards out. Gladbach don’t look particularly happy under high balls. It’s half cleared. The ball drops to Toure, 25 yards out. A trademark volley is blocked at source. This is a very entertaining match.
13 min: The first corner leads to a repeat. The second finds Kolarov with the ball at his feet on the penalty spot. He can’t dig it out from under his boots, and the eventual snapshot is easily blocked. This isn’t going to end 0-0. It can’t. It surely can’t.
12 min: Silva sprays the ball wide left for Sterling, who smoothly glides in from the wing and looks to curl one into the top right. It’s a decent effort, but deflected out for a corner on the left.
10 min: ... the ball drops to De Bryune, just outside the area. He takes a fresh air swipe, and Raffael tears upfield. It’s two on two! The best part of 100 yards to travel, though. Raffael eventually feeds the ball left for Herrmann, who cuts in from the left and enters the area. He zips a low shot across Hart and inches wide of the right-hand post. Both teams could easily have a couple of goals to their name already.
9 min: Kolarov powers down the left wing and hoicks a curler into the Gladbach box. Aguero would have got his head on that were he nine feet tall. Then there’s another phase of attack, De Bruyne and Silva one-twoing down the inside-right channel, the former firing straight across the face of goal. The ball’s turned out for a corner, from which ...
7 min: City have settled now after that shaky start. They’re enjoying the lion’s share of possession, and stroking it around the midfield in the dominant style. Going nowhere, but that’s not really the point right now.
5 min: But it’s City who nearly take the lead! Sterling gets ahead of Christensen down the left, and whistles a low ball through the six-yard box. Aguero is free, level with the right-hand post. He has to score! But his first-time toe-poke, at full stretch, is straight at Sommer, who is star-jumping in desperation! The ball hits the keeper on the arse, balloons into the air, and is headed clear by Dominguez.
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3 min: And City are on the back foot again. Johnson makes good down the inside-left channel, and feeds the ball left to Raffael. The striker’s in the area, but from a tight-ish angle lashes a wild shot wide left of the goal. He only had Hart to beat. This is a poor start by City.
2 min: Both sides making sure they get a few touches of the ball. The bouncing crowd doing most of the work so far. But then from nothing, Dahoud finds a bit of space 30 yards out, and slides a ball through a huge gap in the middle of City’s defence. Raffael would have been clean through if the pass wasn’t overhit. Worrying for City.
And they're off!
Gladbach get the ball rolling. They’re wearing their famous black-and-white shirts. The visitors are in neon yellow. What a belting atmosphere. The Champions League really comes alive when it’s not the same old, same old clubs competing every year. The hairs are standing on your neck, yes?
Here we go, then, my Eurofootyphile friends. It’s crunch time for City and Gladbach in the group of death. Defeat tonight for either team will spell real trouble, with last season’s finalists Juventus and Europa League winners Sevilla also in this pool, and already with wins in the bank. A draw will probably be of little use either. So someone’s going to go home unhappy tonight. Perhaps both teams will. One may escape with a win and some hope, though. Good luck calling it. City are the stronger team on paper, certainly when you tot up the transfer fees. But there’s a real sense of occasion at the Borussia-Park tonight, the black, white and green of Gladbach flashing away in the stands as the hosts play a home tie in the European Cup for the first time in 37 years. What an atmosphere! Enough to propel Gladbach to victory?
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Borussia Mönchengladbach boast one of the most beautifully simple crests in world football, don’t they? Yes. Yes they do. Gorgeous.
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Seven goals in the last two games for Gladbach. All the scorers start: winger Fabian Johnson, strikers Raffael and Lars Stindl, central midfielder Mahmoud Dahoud, and captain Granit Xhaka. That dismal six-game losing streak won’t be quite forgotten - it did for manager Favre after all - but there are strong signs that the confidence is coming back. City meanwhile name injury worries Yaya Toure and David Silva, though they’re without injured captain Vincent Kompany. Manuel Pellegrini will sit on the bench watching, something that’s worthy of comment because he very nearly didn’t make the flight to Germany, having grabbed the wrong passport when dashing out of the house. Oops. No harm done.
The Foals and the Citizens
Borussia Mönchengladbach: Sommer, Korb, Christensen, Dominguez, Wendt, Dahoud, Xhaka, Herrmann, Johnson, Raffael, Stindl.
Subs: Heimeroth, Nordtveit, Drmic, Hazard, Traore, Schultz, Hahn.
Manchester City: Hart, Sagna, Otamendi, Demichelis, Kolarov, Fernandinho, Toure, Sterling, De Bruyne, Silva, Aguero.
Subs: Caballero, Zabaleta, Maffeo, Evans, Fernando, Barker, Navas.
Referee: Clément Turpin (France).
♫ ♯ Une grande réunion! Eine grosse sportliche Veranstaltung! The main event! 🎶
If you factor clubs from Merseyside out of the equation, Borussia Mönchengladbach have a pretty good record against English teams. In their Seventies pomp, the Foals lost a European Cup tie on penalties - the first shootout in the tournament’s history - to Everton in 1970, the Uefa Cup final to Liverpool in 1973, the European Cup final to Liverpool in 1977, and the European Cup semi-final to Liverpool in 1978. Hmm. But they did knock Arsenal out of the 1996-97 Uefa Cup, and perhaps more pertinently to tonight’s action, dispatch Manchester City from the same competition at the quarter-final stage in 1979 en route to winning the trophy.
That was quite the tie. Mick Channon had given City an early lead in the first leg at Maine Road, but Ewald Lienen equalised in the second half, and Mönchengladbach ran out easy winners in the return, Christian Kulik, Hans-Günter Bruns and Karl Del’Haye all scoring before Kazimierz Deyna notched a late consolation. In City’s team alongside Channon that night: Joe Corrigan, Dave Watson, Paul Power, Colin Viljoen, Asa Hartford, Peter Barnes.
But the past is a different country. The quarter-finals of a European trophy seems a long way off for both these teams as things stand right now. City lost their opening fixture in this group at home to Juventus, the mental block at this level kicking in yet again. Mönchengladbach were meanwhile trounced by Sevilla, their coach Lucien Favre subsequently resigning following five straight defeats in the Bundesliga. Both these sides are desperate for a little something tonight.
Mönchengladbach have hope. Caretaker coach André Schubert has arrested their worrying decline: he’s presided over a 4-2 win over Augsburg and a 3-1 victory against Stuttgart, results that have catapulted them from the Bundesliga basement to the relative heights of 14th place. City meanwhile are in a funk. After a flying start to the season - five wins on the bounce in the league - the Juve defeat hit like a hammer blow. They followed that up with a home loss to West Ham, and a thumping 4-1 reverse at Spurs. They did score four times in the first half of a League Cup tie at Sunderland, but, well, y’know. They really need to snap out of this, and quick, or their Champions League campaign is destined to go the way of Arsenal.
Mönchengladbach will also be buoyed by playing their first home match in the European Cup proper since March 1978. That was a 2-1 first-leg win against Liverpool, a tie eventually lost 2-4. However, that fixture was played in Dusseldorf, so their last game in Mönchengladbach was actually a 2-0 quarter-final victory over SSW Innsbruck. Either way, though, they won. And their home record against English opposition is four wins and a draw in five matches. City have it all to do.
But they’ve got the players to do it. Do they also have the moxie to fight their way out of a tough spot? We’ll soon find out. It might only be matchday two, but already this feels crucial. It’s on!
Kick off: 7.45pm back in Manchester, 8.45pm local time in Mönchengladbach.
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