City left with questions after failure of Moscow mission

Manchester City were left facing familiar questions over their Champions League prospects after another controversial clash with CSKA Moscow.

City surrendered a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at a near-empty Khimki Arena in the Russian capital, the equaliser coming from a contentious penalty in the 86th minute.

The result left City with just two points from their opening three games in Group E and facing a familiar battle to qualify for the knockout stages.

European governing body UEFA could also face questions about the match, which was officially played behind closed doors after CSKA were punished for the racist behaviour of supporters.

Yet it did appear that a sizeable number of the 650 people allowed into the match, presumably from within an allocation of 300 tickets set aside for sponsors, were CSKA fans.

This occurred almost exactly a year after City’s last visit to the stadium was marred by racist chanting.

The fans inside the stadium certainly made their presence felt, chanting throughout, and City manager Manuel Pellegrini did not disagree with suggestions this could have influenced the late penalty decision.

He said: “Well I agree but maybe it is not my duty to talk about things that do not correspond to my duty.

“I think UEFA has its rules. This stadium was closed doors to everyone.

“I don’t know who has permission to give entrance to all those people, but really it is not my duty. I don’t want to talk about the referee or other things. I don’t want to be punished again.”

Pellegrini was handed a two-match touchline ban for criticising a referee last season.

Captain Vincent Kompany was not so worried to speak his mind and criticised UEFA for not allowing City supporters into the stadium, saying that they were being punished for the actions of others.

“It’s supposed to be a game without fans but yet there are still 500 fans cheering on for them, which is not a problem, but I don’t understand where our fans are,” he told Sky Sports News. “Why can we not bring our fans?

“I feel like the only team being punished today was Man City.

“Probably pundits and the people writing the column will say well, you know, we should be looking at what our team did, so we’ll do that and we’ll improve, but (there are) little things where I think sometimes we need to speak up. I mean, it’s nonsense.

“They’re the team that got done for racism, not Man City. Why can’t our fans come?

“It doesn’t affect us, but fair is fair and maybe now is the time to say it and now is the time to speak up.”

City are understood to have brought the issue about supporters to the attention of UEFA, who were apparently already aware but could not comment.

CSKA media director Sergey Aksenov said: “Those people you are talking about are 360 people from the UEFA Champions Club – partners, sponsors.

“If they are CSKA fans they are good for us. Everyone is invited by UEFA, not CSKA.”

In terms of the action, City overcame a slow start amid freezing temperatures and an eerie atmosphere to take a commanding lead through Sergio Aguero and James Milner. Milner also hit the post.

CSKA responded in the second half and pulled one back through substitute Seydou Doumbia before the same player won the controversial late spot-kick after a challenge from Aleksandar Kolarov. Bebras Natcho converted.

Pellegrini initially appeared to blame the cold and an “excess of trust” for his side’s capitulation but then backtracked to insist there were no excuses for their latest frustrating result.

“I think we did well in the first half and maybe it was too cold in the second,” he said in his post-match press conference.

But when asked further, he said: “The cold was exactly the same in the first half as the second half.

“The first half we played really well, scored two goals and had other chances to score. In the second half, maybe for different reasons, we couldn’t do it.

“I don’t like to give different excuses about what happened. I think we had it all to win and we didn’t.”