UEFA Champions League Match Recap: Manchester City Defeats Villarreal 2-1

After an opening draw and a 2-0 loss to Bayern Munich in the last match, Manchester City finally walked away with their first Champions League match victory as they defeated Villarreal 2-1 at the Eastlands.

The Blues out-shot and out-possessed their La Liga opponents, but it was Villarreal who got the first strike after a scorcher from Cani four minutes into the match. The goal came off a well-timed Jonathan De Guzmán interception, followed by a connection with Giuseppe Rossi.

It looked as though the Yellow Submarine would finally end their serious goal drought. It wasn't to be, as Carlos Marchena scored an own goal just before the half.  

City left back Aleksandar Kolarov, who performed particularly well in City's draw with SSC Napoli in the opening match of the tournament and prevented the draw from becoming a loss, returned tonight and was on form again in place of Gaël Clichy.

Kolarov's defending led Marchena to score the equalizing own goal. He made a number of crosses and even had the potential to double City's score in the second half, but his attempted goal was offside. 

It looked like the match would end in a tough stalemate for both sides, but the second-half additions of Sergio Agüero and James Milner—Milner with only 10 minutes left—proved to be the ingredients City needed to up its momentum.

Milner in particular delivered, setting in motion the chain of events which led to City's hype man, Agüero, to do as he does best, scoring the winning goal in stoppage time and ending the match 2-1. 

After tonight, the Yellow Submarine remain sunk at the bottom of Group A, having picked up zero points in their first three Champions League matches.

Overall, however, their form looked a lot better and had it not been for Carlos Marchena's own goal, they definitely had a shot at taking home the win. 

Men of the Match: Kolarov impressed, but it was City's late-game subs, Milner and Agüero, who ultimately tipped the scales in favor of Manchester City. Milner put in a tremendous effort for the 10 minutes he played and ultimately set up the victory. Agüero reinforced his status as a clutch goal scorer when he nailed the nail-biter to give City the win.