Aguero is our special one; says Kompany

Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany and manager Manuel Pellegrini both lavished Sergio Aguero with praise after his hat-trick secured a 3-2 victory over Bayern Munich.

The former Atletico Madrid man gave the hosts an early lead from the penalty spot after being felled by Mehdi Benatia, who was promptly shown a red card, but the German champions showed their class to take the lead just before half-time courtesy of goals from Xabi Alonso and Robert Lewandowski.

But Aguero found a late equaliser before bagging the winner in stoppage time to keep City’s Champions League hopes alive – and Kompany believes the squad are indebted to their “special” striker.

When asked where City would be without the Argentine, the centre-back told Sportmasta: “I don’t know, but if you want to succeed at anything you need a special player in special form, otherwise you just don’t win anything.

“He’s our special player. When he’s in that form he makes things achievable that otherwise wouldn’t be.

“We showed heart, we did what we had to do and we defeated a big team today.”

Pellegrini, similarly, praised Aguero after his hat-trick heroics but was keen to emphasis what an excellent job the entire team had done in coming from behind against such a strong Bayern side.

“I think that all the big teams need big players,” the Chilean said after the game. “Sergio is a big player, he’s a top player, he’s very important.

“But I think that the whole team continued playing with trust until the end. We conceded two unbelievable goals by Bayern but the whole team continued trusting and working and playing until the end.”

Despite the late drama at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night, City’s Champions League fate is still not in their own hands and they will crash out of the tournament if CSKA beat Bayern – even if they themselves overcome Roma.