In a game with many twists Manchester City came from behind to seal a 4-2 win over Borussia Moenchengladbach, a win with which the Citizens have clinched the group top spot. Still, Man City boss insists that “Topping the group” was only a ‘secondary target’ for his side and much more important thing was to seal the knockout stage.
Manuel Pellegrini, Manchester City head coach: (On finishing top of the group)
“I talk with the players before the game that the main target was already ready – we already qualified. But tonight we had two important targets. First to win the game after that to change the face we did against Stoke because it was not our team. To try to win the game after that we see what happens with Juventus and Sevilla, but our duty was to win this game here and after that recover the style of play that we normally do. The secondary targets, because the main target we did two games ago, we did it tonight.”
“I think that the hard work we did it already. We did it two games before we finished the group (when Manchester City qualified for the next stage). I always said the most important thing and the target was to qualify for the next stage. You must ask another English team, it’s not so easy to do. After that it was important to finish in the top spot of the group and we did it tonight playing a very good game.”
Andre Schubert, Borussia Moenchengladbach head coach: (On not even making the Europa League knockout stages)
“Today we didn’t do enough. We had to win here and it’s definitely not easy to win here in Manchester. Completely different conditions and opportunities than in Moenchengladbach and that’s one reason we are disappointed on one hand. We are happy that we’ve produced some very good performances and I think we’ve represented Germany well in this difficult group as new comers and that’s incentive for us to get there again in the future.”