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That’s all from me for tonight. Frozen fingers permitting, Jamie Jackson will have typed out a match report in Moscow, which should be up on the website before too long with quotes to follow. Gregg Bakowski ius sitting beside me and ready to bring you all the news that’s fit to print from Chelsea’s match against Maribor, whose record suggests they are no slouches away from home in Europe. You can follow that one by clicking on this link.
Peep! Peep! Peeeeeeeeeeeeeep! It’s all over and CSKA Moscow have rescued a point when all seemed lost. Having played three matches, Manchester City have won none of them and sit third in the group with two points, behind Roma and Bayern Munich who play tonight. MAnchester City’s players surround the referee at the final whistle, because it’s obviously all his fault they contrived to let CSKA back into the game, blow a two-goal lead and now look set for yet another meek Champions League exit.
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90+3 min: CSKA go on the attack again, looking for a winner. Doumbia, who wreaked so much havoc since coming on, has been replaced by midfielder Aleksandrs Cauna.
90+1 min: This match looked completely over as a contest at half-time, but through a mixture of serial incompetence (no shortage of it from Yaya Toure, who keeps giving the ball away in stupid positions) and what looks to have been a home-twon decision from the Hungarian referee, it looks like they’re going to drop at least two of the three points they looked to have in the bag at half-time.
88 min: Seydou Doumbia went down very theatrically just inside the penalty area and Manchester City’s players were furious with the referee for awarding CSKA the spot-kick. It looked a very, very soft penalty to me. Man City substitution: Jovetic on for Fernando.
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GOAL! CSKA Moscow 2-2 Man City (Natkho)
CSKA Moscow midfielder Bibras Natkho makes no mistake from the spot, blasting the ball high to Joe Hart’s left. Manchester City’s Champions League misery continues and to be honest, they only have themselves to blame.
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PENALTY FOR CSKA MOSCOW!!
Kolarov is penalised for shoving Doumbia in the penalty area.
81 min: Having repelled another dangerous attack down their left flank, Manchester City embark on an attack that’s been all to rare in recent minutes. Another careless cross-field ball, this time from Pablo Zabaleta, allows the lively looking Efremov to charge upfield. I think it’s Elequim Mangala puts a rather abrupt stop to the substitute’s gallop.
79 min: Manchester City substitution: David Silva off, Fernandinho on. That’s a Fernandinho, a Fernandes and a Fernando we have on the field of play now. The Fernando might not be on it for much longer, mind. He’s on a yellow card and could easily have had a second for another rather agricultural challenge a few moments ago.
78 min: CSKA eviscerate City down the right flank and Aramenko drills the ball low across the edge of the six-yard box. It takes a slight deflection and there’s nobody on hand in a red shirt to poke it home.
75 min: CSKA are giving Manchester City plenty to think about as the game enters the final 15 minutes or so. It would be disgraceful for Manuel Pellegrini’s men to blow a two-goal lead considering how desperate for three points they were coming into tonight’s fixture.
73 min: Yaya Toure gifts possession to Dmitri Efremov with a woefully under-cooked cross-field pass to David Silva on the edge of the CSKA penalty area. The substitute gallops upfield on the counter, but runs down a blind alley manned by Vincent Kompany.
71 min: Manchester City substitution: Edin Dzeko off, Jesus Navas on.
71 min: Roman Eremenko pumps a hopeful long ball forward for Seydou Doumbia to chase. Vincent Kompany cleans up at the back for City.
69 min: CSKA substitution: Zoran Tosic, who’s been excellent, off. Dmitri Efremov, a 19-year-old Russia Under-21 international on.
67 min: That was very slack from Manchester City, with Vincent Kompany at fault for failing to track the run of Ahmed Musa. He latched on to a neat through-ball and squared it from right to left across the face of goal for his team-mate Doumbia to slot home from about three yards. Woeful defending by City, but good play from their hosts.
GOAL! CSKA Moscow 1-2 Man City (Doumbia 64)
Ha! I am some numpty. Certainly a harbinger of doom for Manchester City fans, it would seem. Having said they were in complete control - and they were - they’ve now conceded a goal to a player who was flat on his back on a stretcher less than 10 minutes ago.
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64 min: CSKA attack down the right flank courtesy of Zoran Tosic. He lays the ball off to Fernandes, who brings a save out of Joe Hart.
62 min: I spoke too soon. Roman Eremenko lets one fly on the half volley from distance and is disappointed to see it scream just a foot or two over the crossbar. Good effort.
61 min: CSKA are enjoying lots of possession in the middle third, but doing very little with it. They’re not troubling Manchester City’s two banks of four defenders in any way.
59 min: Doumbia returns, despite leaving the field on a stretcher. The small crowd present begin chanting his name.
58 min: From the corner, CSKA Moscow break on a counter-attack and Fernando takes one from the team by taking out Seydou Doumbia. The substitute’s roars of agony as he goes to ground are audible and rather harrowing. He’s stretchered off to receive treatment on the sideline, while Fernando gets a yellow card for his trouble.
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57 min: A corner for Manchester City, earned after a speculative Sergio Aguero shot from distance is deflected out of play.
56 min: James Milner is fouled on the halfeway line by Ahmed Musa and sent sprawling. Free-kick for Manchester City.
54 min: All the tempo has been sucked out of the game, which will suit Manchester City just fine as they attempt to close out this tricky fixture in an empty practically stadium far, far away from Manchester.
52 min: Dzeko squanders good possession after Fernandes had shown too much of the ball to James Milner and allowed the goalscorer to charge forward and play the ball into the big man. A poor touch gifts possession back to CSKA, when Silva was in a good possession.
51 min: CSKA attempt to find a way down the right, before switching to the left and then back again. They’re going nowhere.
49 min: David Silva goes on one of his little runs, gliding from the left flank through the centre, before laying off the ball to Edin Dzeko. His pass is intercepted and CSKA try to work their way into Man City territory again.
47 min: CSKA make the running early in the second half and win a free-kick when Fernando fouls Natkho a couple of yards outside the Manchester City penalty area, nearer the touchline than the centre. Zoran Tosic takes the free-kick but smacks it straight into the defensive wall.
Second half: CSKA get proceedings under way, having replaced defending’s Aleksei Berezutski with goal-scoring’s Seydou Doumbia, who is an Ivoria.
Half-time in Moscow: Manchester City go in for their half-time cuppa with a two-goal lead, courtesy of strikes from Sergio Aguero and James Milner. They could have had more, but CSKA have had their chances too. They’ll do well to come back from this. Here for your half-time perusal, is the latest offering from our video team.
43 min: CSKA Moscow look well beaten already, their plan of keeping City scoreless and hitting them on the break having been well and truly foiled. In the dug-out, their manager Leonid Slutsky has been rocking manically to and fro in his seat since kick-off. He’ll have to make some changes at half-time.
39 min: Manchester City are denied a penalty when Sergei Ignashevich goes unpunished despite tripping Edin Dzeko in the CSKA penalty area, when the Bosnian looked likely to score. The ball breaks to James Milner on the inside right and he rattles the upright with his follow-up shot.
GOAL! CSKA Moscow 0-2 Man City (Milner 38)
A beauty from Manchester City, with a move started and finished by James Milner. He’d began the attack on the left flank, doing well to keep the ball in play with a short pass and was on hand to bundle the ball over the line after Sergio Aguero had fired across the face of goal following excellent work from Pablo Zabaleta. With his back to the byeline, the City full-back stretched every sinew to head the ball into the Argentinian’s path.
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37 min: Edin Dzeko forces a save from Igor Akinfeev. “GET AFTER THE BALL! GET AFTER THE BALL!” roars Vincent Kompany at somebody or other.
34 min: This, from the Guardian’s man in Moscow.
Snowing...
— jamie jackson (@JamieJackson___) October 21, 2014
That’s exactly the kind of sparkling prose, attention to detail and in-depth, hard-hitting combination of analysis and news-reporting that secured Jamie Jackson his job patrolling the Manchester football beat.
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31 min: More on that goal: with CSKA defender Mario Fernandes playing everyone onside, David Silva played a floated pass from deep to Edin Dzeko. He controlled it well and rolled it to his right, into the path of Aguero, when a more selfish striker would have gone for goal himself.
GOAL! CSKA Moscow 0-1 Man City (Aguero 29)
Manchester City silence the crowd that, em, isn’t there by opening the scoring after beating the offside trap. Edin Dzeko unselfishly plays the ball into the path of Sergio Aguero, who slots into an empty net from about 10 yards out despite a last-ditch tackle from Vasili Berezutski.
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26 min: “A pedant writes,” writes Fraser Thomas. “Three degrees is not sub-zero.” Would that be a pedant who doesn’t realise that on a Moscow evening, the temperature tends to drop between 5.42pm (when the original weather report was provided) and 8.28pm local time (when the temperature was reported to be sub zero).
23 min: A defence-splitting ball is played through to Ahmed Moussa, who looks to have just Joe Hart to beat. His first touch let’s him down and allows Elequim Mangala to scramble back and harry him off the ball. Careless play from Manchester City, who’re looking a bit light in numbers in midfield.
21 min: The shouts of the players are drowned out as the small local contingent in the ground start up a chant of “CSKA! CSKA! CSKA!”
19 min: It’s CSKA’s turn to press and probe, with Georgi Shennikov, Sergei Igashevich and Georgi Milanov, among others, passing the ball around to good effect in Manchester City’s half.
18 min: More patient build-up from Manchester City, as they try to figure out a way through the defensive thicket of CSKA players. Kolarov looks for a route down the left flank and finally sends in a cross, which is cleared.
18 min: CSKA full-back Mario Fernandes does well on a sortie through the centre, playing the ball forward to Musa, who’d made a run. He attempts to take it around Vincent Kompany, but is foiled. City go on the attack again, as their opponents scramble to get back and defend.
15 min: Pablo Zabaleta goes close for Man City. finding space in the CSKA penalty area, he chests down a splendid pass from Yayya Toure but pulls his volley a foot or so wide of the upright. He’s furious with himself for not getting the ball on target and almost certainly would have beaten Igor Akinfeev in the Russian side’s goal had he done so.
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11 min: Manchester City pick up the ball just inside the CSKA half and find themselves with two banks of four and five defenders to try and play their way through. Bibras Natkho and Aleksi Berezutski are rushing back to attend to defensive duties whenever their side lose the ball.
10 min: Now it’s Tosic’s turn to try his luck. His rising effort from 25 yards or so curls narrowly wide of JOe Hart’s right upright.
8 min: A let-off for Man City, as defender Elequim Mangala can only head a long ball into the path of opposing striker Ahmed Musa. The Nigerian bears down on goal before making room for a shot and sending a rising drive fizzing narrowly wide.
7 min: Manchester City win a free-kick deep in CSKA territory, out by the right touchline. Masculinity’s James Milner, wearing short sleeves in the sub zero temperatures, sends the ball into the mixer. City win the ball, but Silva cedes possession while trying to dink a ball through the penalty area for Milner to latch on to.
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5 min: Tosic gallops through the centre on a counter-attack and plays the ball forward to Ahmed Musa. He holds the ball up well before pinging it towards Eremenko who’d made a good run from deep. His cross wafts harmlessly across the Manchester City penalty area and out of harm’s way.
4 min: Just inside the CSKA penalty area, David Silva attempts to lay the ball off to Edin Dzeko to fire off a shot, but his pass is intercepted and cleared.
2 min: From deep, Aleksandar Kolorav attempts to swing a cross into the CSKA penalty area from the left touchline, but over-hits his pass. Move along, nothing to see here.
1 min: Manchester City kick-off what looks and sounds like a training match, with the shouts of individual players audible as the ball gets pinged around the pitch early doors.
Nearly there: It’s bitterly cold and the stadium is practically empty as the players of both teams join a sort of mass group hug behind a “No to Racism” flag and pose for the cameras.
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Not long now: “It’s so, so strange here tonight,” says Sky Sports co-commentator Niall Quinn, as the teams prepare to walk out into the eerily empty stadium, with each accompanied a team of mascots all wearing t-shirts with anti-racism managers. They walk out to the sound of the Champions League anthem and a smattering of polite applause from the few hundred present.
Tonight’s attendance: There’ll be 650 people at tonight’s match, according to BBC 5 Live reporter Alistair Bruce-Ball: 75 delegates from each club, a group of 50 centre-circle flag-bearers and their parents, 150 media and 300 guests of sponsors. There’s also a gang of Manchester City fans who have rented a flat over-looking the stadium for the evening, but sadly they don’t count and won’t be allowed in.
And apparently this is your attendance for CSKA vs Man City tonight. All going to be a bit weird. pic.twitter.com/FX5HtTuVps
— Alistair Bruce-Ball (@alibruceball) October 21, 2014
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Musa v Zabaleta: A couple of days ago, CSKA striker Ahmed Musa described Manchester City as “weak”. Nonsense, of course, even if they’ve failed to impress thus far in the Champions League. However, on our Football Weekly podcast yesterday, Michael Cox from Zonal Marking did remind all present that the Nigerian gave Pablo Zabaleta the run-around and scored two goals when their respective international teams met in this summer’s World Cup finals. It will be interesting to see how Mr Zabaleta copes tonight.
CSKA Moscow manager Leonid Slutski speaks
“We will make a decision about the participation of Mário Fernandes tomorrow and after today’s training session we will decide how many minutes [Seydou] Doumbia can play,” he said in his press conference yesterday.
“Manchester City have been and remain favourites not only for our group but also the Champions League. And the fact that they have not won in the group does not mean anything. They played in Munich and against a strong Roma side. In their national championship they are also playing well, beating Tottenham 4-1. They are favourites, but we will make every effort to achieve a positive result.
“We are preparing for a match against a top club. When we have the ball we will attack; when they have it we will defend.
“The most important pairing in the centre for Manchester City is Yaya Touré and Fernandinho. At the moment, [Frank] Lampard is not such an important player for Manchester City, as he was at Chelsea for a long time.”
Man City manager Manuel Pellegrini speaks
“Yaya [Touré] has the quality to make a difference,” he said yesterday. “He had a difficult summer, but every game he is getting better, such as against Aston Villa recently when he decided the outcome. He can play in different positions, at second striker or in the centre of midfield.
“It will be a very strange game. It is a pity that we cannot play tomorrow with fans, as this competition is for the fans, but we don’t have any other option.
“CSKA play attacking football. Both teams continue to be an important power in their respective league. CSKA bought two or three good players [in the summer], like we did. CSKA play attacking football. We need to concentrate and keep a clean sheet.
CSKA Moscow v Manchester City line-ups
CSKA Moscow: Akinfeev, Mario Fernandes, Vasili Berezutski, Alexsei Berezutski, Ignashevich, Shchennikov, Tosic, Natcho, Milanov, Eremenko, Musa.
Subs: Chepchugov, Nababkin, Efremov, Cauna, Bazelyuk, Doumbia.
Man City: Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany, Mangala, Kolarov, Milner, Toure, Fernando, Silva, Dzeko, Aguero.
Subs: Caballero, Sagna, Jesus Navas, Clichy, Fernandinho, Demichelis, Jovetic.
Referee: Istvan Vad (Hungary)
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Weather report: It’s 3 degrees celsius in Moscow this evening, with light rain.
Barry will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s an extract of Jamie Jackson’s scene-setter from Moscow:
Manuel Pellegrini believes Yaya Touré may be on the brink of his best form as Manchester City prepare to take on CSKA Moscow in Tuesday evening’s crucial Champions League encounter.
City have only a point from their opening two Group E matches so have to defeat Leonid Slutsky’s team or they will return home facing elimination from the competition. Touré disappointed in City’s 1-0 loss at Bayern Munich and the 1-1 draw with Roma at the Etihad Stadium.
The game is being played at an empty Arena Khimki due to a Uefa stadium ban for repeated racist behaviour by CSKA’s supporters – something Touré had to endure in last season’s corresponding fixture – and Pellegrini said: “I don’t agree exactly with the media that Yaya has had a bad season. If you compare to last year, when he had a brilliant performance, maybe he just needs time to get back to that level.
“He is still a very important player for our team, as he showed recently against Aston Villa [in the 2-0 win]. Every game he is playing better, he had a very complicated summer, but he is arriving towards his best performances.”
Touré, Manchester City’s key central midfielder, has been criticised for his defensive displays. Yet his manager does not believe he should move permanently to operate as a second striker or a No10. “It can be an option to play him further forward, he can play both positions,” Pellegrini said. “He plays forward with his national squad, but he is an important midfielder for us and that is where he will continue to play. This team does not just depend on one player. The whole team plays well, not just with Yaya.
“And when we improve, it’s because the whole team has improved. So I repeat, he can play both positions, but he will continue in the position where, last season, he was the best player in the Premier League.”
