Wednesday 9 December 2015 00:01, UK
Manuel Pellegrini believes Manchester City will be a match for anyone in the Champions League if they play as they did in the second half against Borussia Monchengladbach.
Having thrown away an early lead given to them by David Silva to trail 2-1 at half-time at the Etihad on Tuesday night, City improved greatly after the break and ran out 4-2 winners thanks to a quickfire double from Raheem Sterling and late strike from Wilfried Bony.
The result, coupled with Sevilla's 1-0 home victory over Juventus, means City finish top of Group D.
Asked afterwards if he thought it was one of the best European nights in City's history, Pellegrini said: "It is one of the best. If we play the way we did in the second half, we can play against any team.
"You can win, you can lose, but I think it's the way we normally work, it's the way I like to play. Of course I'm very happy that we won the group, but the most important thing is we return to be the team that I want to see playing in that way."
On an evening when City's rivals Manchester United crashed out of the Champions League, Pellegrini was keen to stress that the main job had already been done in clinching qualification.
While pleased to have sealed first place, he emphasised that anyone wanting to do well in the competition would be coming up against the continent's biggest sides eventually.
Pellegrini also insisted his greatest relief was that victory had been secured with an excellent second-half performance that marked a considerable improvement from the first-half showing and Saturday's 2-0 loss at Stoke.
"It is better to finish first because you can avoid important teams for one stage more," said the 62-year-old, whose side in the past two seasons have been beaten in the last 16 by Barcelona - something that now cannot happen this time around.
"Of course it is better at this stage not to play Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Real Madrid. But after that, if you want to win the title, you have to play against the biggest teams.
"And it doesn't mean you are definitely in the quarter-finals. It is important to play the way we did in the second half in Europe.
"I told the players beforehand the main target was already done - we were already qualified. But tonight we had very important targets - firstly, to win the game, and after that, to change things after the way we lost against Stoke, because that was not our team.
"We had to see what happened with Sevilla and Juventus, but our duty was to win this game here and recover the style of play we normally do.
"I felt relief in the sense that we saw, in the second half again, the team (playing the way) we normally try to play."
