Manchester City's John Stones and Erling Haaland revealed what Pep Guardiola told them as the Blues came back from 1-0 down to beat Borussia Dortmund 2-1.
City were frustrated in the first half as Dortmund kept the game goalless playing a deep defensive line. The task facing the Blues got harder just before the hour mark as Marco Reus' cross was turned home by England starlet Jude Bellingham at the front post.
The goal seemed to stir Guardiola's side as they began to dominate again. Stones netted City's equaliser as his thunderbolt shot flew past Alexander Meyer.
ALSO READ: City player ratings vs Dortmund
Four minutes later City won it through their Norwegian striker Haaland. Joao Cancelo's cross was turned home superbly by the 22-year-old to win the game.
After the match, Stones revealed exactly what Guardiola had told his City side. "Try and take up those positions [Guardiola said], the manager wants us in those sorts of areas for things like that," the centre back told BT Sport.
"Control the counter-attack as well, we were in good positions for balls outside the box. It was one of those things, getting a few shouts [I] just decided to pull the trigger.
"It was difficult. We were definitely not at our best tonight, we made it difficult, we didn't play at the tempo we should’ve, we had a lot of sloppy passes. At half-time we had some stern words between each other and tried to change that for the second half."
When asked about facing his old team, Haaland added: "Two wonderful goals today, mine was a bit better honestly.
"Cancelo nice cross, brilliant ball to win. It was good to see everyone [from Dortmund].
"They didn’t stop me, I scored. They played well, they were good, Edin [Terzic] I was quite sure I was going to be ‘followed’ the whole game because Edin knows me very well.
"Dortmund was very good today, in the end the three points is what matters."
READ NEXT:
