Ilkay Gundogan has spoken of his ‘perfect day’ after City beat Borussia Monchengladbach 4-0.

The German international had a debut to remember, winning a penalty and settling into the Blues’ midfield seamlessly, despite being out since the end of last season.

Gundogan, who was substituted on 80 minutes to a standing ovation from the City fans, said: “Yes I’m really happy – it was a perfect day for me.

“That was my first game for four months and I just tried to work hard, enjoy it and now we’re looking ahead to Bournemouth at the weekend.

“It’s been tough not playing and not having any real tests other than training and the odd friendly game so to last 80 minutes is very pleasing.

“I’m starting from zero now and looking forward to the weekend.”

Skipper Pablo Zabaleta was also pleased to get the group stages off to a winning start.

ZABA: Captained Blues to victory
ZABA: Captained Blues to victory

 

He said: “We played really well and created a lot of chances so we’re very pleased with the performance and that we’ve won the first game of our Champions League group stage.

“It’s going to be very tough and we’re in a tough group so this is a great start.

“It was frustrating because we’d been preparing for the game against Borussia Monchengladbach since beating United and it was frustrating not to play, but the weather conditions were terrible so there was nothing we could do.

“Ironically, last night was too wet and today was too hot! But we’re very happy.

“Next up are Celtic and we are paying no attention to their loss at Barcelona which we know as well as anyone is a difficult place to go and play.

“People have said they are the weakest team in the group but I don’t agree with that at all. They may have had a bad day at the Nou Camp but they are very strong team in their own stadium and we’re expecting every game to be difficult but we’ll go to Parkhead and try to get three points and play the same way we did against Monchengladbach.”