Stoppage time De Bruyne goal gives City victory

MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) – Kevin De Bruyne scored a minute into stoppage time to give Manchester City a 2-1 win over Sevilla at the Etihad Stadium and boost their chances of qualifying from Group D in the Champions League on Wednesday.

The Belgian’s neatly-executed angled shot after 91 minutes gave City victory when it looked as though Sevilla were about to leave with a deserved point.

Sevilla took the lead after 30 minutes when the impressive Ukrainian striker Yevhen Konoplyanka took advantage of some poor City defending to sweep the ball past Joe Hart, but City were level six minutes later.

The equaliser came when a shot from Wilfried Bony deflected off the foot of Adil Rami and into the net and that looked to be that until De Bruyne’s last gasp goal.

Going into the match, City had won only five of their 15 home Champions League matches and their vulnerability in front of their own fans was exposed again. Noisy Sevilla fans enjoyed the game far more than the muted home ones until the last few moments.

Konoplyanka cracked a free kick against Joe Hart’s left-hand post after 18 minutes, but he found the net 12 minutes later when he swept the ball in after a cross from Vitolo with the City defence in disarray.

City were level within six minutes, though, after a move begun by Yaya Toure who manoeuvred along the goal-line before cutting the ball back for Raheem Sterling.

His shot was pushed out by goalkeeper Sergio Rico but only as far as Bony whose snapshot deflected in off the foot of Adil Rami.

City, without injured striker Sergio Aguero and the creative David Silva, lacked real spark in attack and manager Manuel Pellegrini reshuffled for the later stages, taking off Bony, moving De Bruyne into the middle and Toure further upfield, which in the end, worked to perfection.

Juventus have seven points, City have six, Sevilla three and Borussia Moenchengladbach one following a 0-0 draw in the other game of the group.

(Reporting by Mike Collett; editing by Clare Lovell)