Manchester City have averted a disastrous start to their Champions League campaign by staging a late fightback to beat Borussia Monchengladbach.

Manuel Pellegrini's side found themselves a goal down less than 10 minutes into the second half and then appeared to be heading home with a single point when they equalised only for a late penalty from Sergio Aguero to hand them maximum points.

It could have been a horror start for City when Nicolas Otamendi was harshly penalised for bringing down Raffael in the area but Joe Hart was up to the task and managed to deny the Brazilian from the spot in the 20th minute.

The opening goal came on 54 minutes when Lars Stindl clinically finished Julian Korb's cut-back pass with a neat first-time finish but the lead only last around 10 minutes as City fired back.

Fernandinho's header from a corner ricocheted off Martin Demichelis and in over the line but Korb acrobatically cleared it before the ball fell for Otamendi who fired into the back of the net with help from an Andreas Christensen deflection.

In the final minute of the contest, City hit the lead after Fabian Johnson hacked down Aguero as Gladbach attempted to clear a corner, with the Argentine stepping up to fire beyond Yann Sommer to give the visitors a much-needed win.

The victory has City occupying third spot on the Group D table ahead of bottom-placed Gladbach who are without a point from their two fixtures.

2015/16 UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE - GROUP D

Borussia Monchengladbach (GER): 1 (Lars Stindl 54')
Manchester City (ENG): 2 (Nicolas Otamendi 65', Sergio Aguero (PEN) 90')
Stadion im Borussia-Park, Monchengladbach, Germany - 46,217