CSKA Moscow 2 Manchester City 2, The Sky Blues threw away a two goal lead in Moscow as their atrocious run of form in the Champions League continued, to leave them staring down the barrel of a group-stage exit for the third time in four years.
City are still searching for their first win in Group E, having lost away to Bayern Munich and drawn at home to Roma. It was never going to be easy to take maximum points in Russia, but it was vital that they did, so City will be furious that after taking an early lead they allowed their hosts back into the game in the second half.
It was an eerie encounter, a game played in a near empty Arena Khimki because of a ban imposed by Uefa on home fans after a spate of violent incidents in recent weeks. Instead of singing from the terraces there was only shouting on the pitch as City hit the ground running. Sergio Aguero broke the deadlock on 29 minutes, running on to David Silva's well-crafted pass to slot his 11th goal in 11 games. Less than ten minutes later the Argentine inadvertently turned creator when his miscued shot was seized on by James Milner and the England midfielder doubled City's advantage. Milner should have added a third before half-time but his effort hit the post and allowed CSKA to go down the tunnel still with a glimmer of hope of turning the game around after the break.
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CKSA set about their task with gusto in the second half, and City conceded just the hour mark when Ahmed Musa whipped a low shot across goal that was turned into the net by substitute Seydou Doumbia. The Ivorian forward also had a hand in CSKA's equaliser, when his run into the City box was ended by a challenge from Aleksandar Kolarov that the Hungarian referee deemed unlawful. Bedras Natcho beat Joe Hart from the penalty spot to secure a draw for CSKA and end their six game losing streak in the Champions League.
The result, coupled with Bayern Munich's emphatic 7-1 thrashing of Roma in Italy, means that City remain in third spot with just two points from three games. Roma have four points while Bayern are all but assured of qualification having taken maximum points to date.
City's fate will now, in all likelihood, rest on the outcome of their final group stage match against Roma in Italy on 10 December.
Asked if he believed City had blown their chances of progressing to the knockout phase, Manuel Pellegrini retorted: "We have nine points left to play for, of course we can still qualify. After we've played for those nine points, we'll see how many we have."
As for the match in Moscow, the Chilean came perilously close to uttering the famous 'game of two halves' cliche when asked for his assessment. "We played very well in the first half, we scored two goals and had many more clear chances to score," he said of his side's display. "[But] football is 95 minutes, it's not just the first half."
