Doumbia shatters City as CSKA win in Manchester
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Article summary
Manchester City FC 1-2 PFC CSKA Moskva
Seydou Doumbia's double takes CSKA level on points with second-placed AS Roma and leaves the English champions bottom of Group E.
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Article body
• CSKA climb level with Roma after first ever win in England
• Seydou Doumbia repeats last season's double at City
• City finish with nine men after Fernandinho and Yaya Touré are sent off
• Winless City drop to bottom in the group
Manchester City FC's European woes deepened as Seydou Doumbia struck twice to earn PFC CSKA Moskva a famous victory over their Group E rivals.
It was CSKA's first win on English soil and lifted them above City in Group E – and level on four points with AS Roma. Doumbia was the architect with two-first half goals, the Ivorian claiming a double on the ground where he had netted twice in a 5-2 defeat on this day a year ago. In between Yaya Touré had equalised but he and substitute Fernandinho were later sent off as City finished the game with nine men and staring in the face a third failure in four UEFA Champions League group campaigns.
To mark Bonfire Night, there was a firework display outside the ground before kick-off but this was a night City's European hopes seemed to go up in smoke. It took CSKA just 96 seconds to silence the home fans. After Gaël Clichy was penalised for handling on the right edge of the box, Bebras Natcho played in a free-kick and Doumbia profited from slack marking by Touré to power a header past Joe Hart.
Touré made amends with the equaliser when Stevan Jovetić, on his first UEFA Champions League start for City, went down under Vasili Berezutski's challenge and the big midfielder curled a superb free-kick over the wall and inside the left-hand post.
That gave City a platform but they were sloppy and subdued and CSKA, counterattacking impressively, should have had a second goal after Doumbia broke clear only to fire wide. Fortunately for the visitors, the Ivorian was not so profligate with his next chance. Again City's defending let them down as Clichy played a loose ball infield to Natcho and he released the No88 who, having taken a clever step beyond Pablo Zabaleta, needed just one touch to steady himself before slipping a low shot past Hart.
At the other end, Igor Akinfeev had foiled Sergio Agüero at his near post with the score at 1-1 but City, without the injured David Silva, lacked a creative spark. To change things, Manuel Pellegrini sent on Samir Nasri and Fernandino at the restart and City did improve but Akinfeev saved well from James Milner and Edin Džeko, the third substitute, before those sendings-off left City with nine men and little hope, Fernando collecting two bookable offences and Touré seeing red for a shove on Roman Eremenko.