Manuel Pellegrini hails Sergio Aguero’s nerve after Manchester City win

· 'It’s not easy to score a penalty in the last minute,' says manager
· Pellegrini hopes win in Monchengladbach will transform City’s form

Posted Thursday, October 01, 2015 by theguardian.com

Sergio Aguero slots in the winner against Borussia Monchengladbach in the Champions League but Manuel Pellegrini says his Manchester City side are in need of a break.

Manuel Pellegrini praised Sergio Aguero’s character after the forward coolly scored the 90th-minute penalty that gave Manchester City a last-gasp victory over Borussia Mönchengladbach to secure their first points in Champions League Group D.

Aguero’s third of the season followed an own goal equaliser after Lars Stindl had opened the scoring for Mönchengladbach at Borussia Park. Aguero had previously missed chances but Pellegrini hailed the centre-forward for winning and then finishing from the spot.

"It’s not easy to score a penalty in the last minute, we know how important Sergio is for our team but hope the whole team will change [its form]. We need the international break because we have eight injured players," he said.

City’s last game before the week off is at home to Newcastle on Saturday. "It’s very important not only for Kun [Agüero] but all the players to beat Newcastle," Pellegrini said. "It’s also important for all the players to have a break and stop for a little bit."

Yaya Touré was replaced at half-time and David Silva in the second half, because they were short of match fitness after their recent injury problems. "Yaya was not 100% from the beginning, I had some doubts from the beginning, but 45 minutes was the maximum he could do. The same for David," the manager said.

Pellegrini was also content with Joe Hart, with the goalkeeper outstanding throughout and his display including a first-half penalty save from Raffael.

"Joe made three very important saves, he saved a penalty, after that he also made brilliant saves," the Chilean said. "The performance of Joe was very important for us."

After losing to Juventus in the opening group match, City now have three points and next face Sevilla home then away. "I don’t think that we must just talk about two games against Sevilla," Pellegrini said. "We must play four games more, very important not to lose points away from home but until the end it will be difficult.

"We are just starting the group stage, I don’t think there’s teams that are better than the others. At the end we will see who is the best team but at the moment it’s very difficult to answer the question [of who is most impressive]."

Hart stressed the preparation that goes into saving a spot-kick. He said: "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."