Thursday 13 December 2018 11:25, UK
Leroy Sane says Manchester City were forced to "wake up" on Wednesday night as they came from behind to beat Hoffenheim in the Champions League.
A first domestic defeat of the season at Chelsea on Saturday, which saw them fall behind Liverpool at the top of the Premier League table, had appeared to have left a hangover into their final Champions League group match against the German side.
Hoffenheim took an early lead with a penalty before two goals from Sane secured first place in Group F, with City missing a number of chances that should have given them a more convincing win than the 2-1 scoreline.
"At the beginning maybe we were a little bit sleepy but at the end we did it really good," said Sane.
"We woke up and played really good football. I am happy, especially with the way we played altogether."
Sane's equaliser came from a stunning free-kick on the stroke of half-time, but he was only on set-piece duty due to a spate of injuries.
City had no obvious set-piece specialists from the 25-yard distance on the field when the 22-year-old stepped up.
"I think in my professional career I have never scored a free-kick," said Sane. "I thought this was the moment and I just tried it."
Sane paid tribute to team-mate Raheem Sterling for his involvement in his second, which came from a quick counter-attack.
"I thought Raheem was running in space and I wanted to give him the ball so he could go one-on-one," he said.
"But he's got good vision, a good eye, and he saw the run coming and passed again to me. I just had to tap in the ball. It was a really good goal."
Sane, however, could have had a hat-trick had he not passed up a shooting chance on another lightning break from deep.
Again Sterling played in Sane but he opted to pass inside to Bernardo Silva, who was denied by goalkeeper Oliver Baumann.
Sane said: "I just regret we didn't score the goal. It was three against just the goalkeeper.
"I thought I would pass to Bernardo and he would just have to tap the ball in but my eye wasn't as good as Raheem's.
"I think it would have been better if I'd just shot the ball in but at the end we are all happy we won."
