City Stunned Thursday, 6th Nov 2014 09:28 Fernandinho and Yaya Toure were sent off as City crashed to a damaging 2-1 loss to CSKA in the Champions League. City now have to win the next two games to stand any chance of advancing to the knockout stages. City's fans booed the Champions League anthem in protest pre match after away supporters were prevented from watching the 2-2 draw between the teams in the reverse fixture two weeks ago. City were stunned in the second minute as Seydou Doumbia, who inspired CSKA’s comeback from 2-0 down to draw against City a fortnight ago, headed the opener. The crowd needed to belifted and Toure provided it with an exquisite free-kick. Stevan Jovetic was bundled over on the edge of the area and the Ivorian stepped up to curl a shot into the top corner and level the scores. Visiting goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev twice saved from Sergio Aguero and once from Martin Demichelis as City attempted to assert control, but sloppiness at the back meant that the home side continued to look vulnerable. The atmosphere cranked up a little as it became apparent some CSKA fans were being ejected and tempers could have flared when Pontus Wernbloom took out Toure with a poor challenge. Still the spark was lacking and City were caught out again when Clichy gave the ball away and Natcho teed up Doumbia again after 34 minutes. Again his finish was clinical as he clipped the ball inside Joe Hart's near post. Pellegrini shook things up at half-time, introducing Samir Nasri and Fernandinho for Jovetic and Jesus Navas. City began to force CSKA back, Milner curling in a cross that narrowly eluded Aguero and then forcing Akinfeev to save with his legs. But with 20 minutes to play they lost Fernandinho, who was shown a second yellow card for blocking off Musa, only eight minutes after he had been booked for fouling Dzagoev. Sidiropoulos(Ref) angered City by booking Ignashevich after Wernbloom, who had already been booked, held back Aguero, but Toure could have no complaints over his straight red card for a petulant shove to the face of Eremenko. To add insult to injury, Aguero was booked for diving and also saw a strong penalty appeal turned down in stoppage time. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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