Manchester, England (SportsNetwork.com) – Manchester City sunk to the bottom
of Champions League Group E on Wednesday after losing 2-1 to CSKA Moscow at
the Etihad Stadium as the Russian side got two goals from Seydou Doumbia to
pull off the upset.
Doumbia struck just two minutes into the match for CSKA, while Yaya Toure
answered six minutes later with a well-taken free kick for the hosts.
However, Doumbia found the net again before halftime, and City became
frustrated after the break and had two players sent off as Fernandinho and
Toure both saw red in the last 20 minutes.
City is now two points back of both Roma and CSKA in the race for second place
in the group, while Bayern Munich has already secured the top spot after a 2-0
win over Roma on Wednesday, giving the German giants four wins from four
matches.
With the match less than two minutes old, the Russian outfit grabbed a
surprising lead from a free kick as Bebras Natcho crossed the ball into the
area from the right wing and found the head of Doumbia, who turned the ball
inside the right post past goalkeeper Joe Hart.
Stevan Jovetic helped City get back onto level terms when he drew a foul on
the edge of the penalty area that allowed Toure to unleash a free kick inside
the left post that gave CSKA goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev little chance.
But a bad giveaway by City defender Gael Clichy handed the visitors the lead
in the 34th when the former Arsenal man played the ball back up the middle and
straight to Natcho, who fed a pass into the box for Doumbia to roll past Hart
and into the bottom corner of the net.
City couldn’t manage to get things going in the final third, and Fernandinho
picked up a second yellow card with 20 minutes to play for a foul on Ahmed
Musa before Toure saw red 11 minutes later for a foolish foul on Roman
Eremenko.
Bayern saw off Roma, 2-0, behind goals from Franck Ribery and Mario Gotze to
finish atop the group, while both Barcelona and PSG secured a spot in the
knockout round with wins over Ajax and APOEL respectively.
Lionel Messi scored twice in Barca’s 2-0 win over Ajax to equal Raul’s record
of 71 Champions League goals, while Edinson Cavani’s goal inside two minutes
was enough for a 1-0 PSG win.
Chelsea failed to lock up a spot in the knockout round after being held to a
1-1 draw at Maribor on Wednesday in Group G as Eden Hazard missed a penalty
kick in the 86th minute after Nemanja Matic equalized for the Blues in the
73rd.
The other match in the group saw Sporting Lisbon claim an important 4-2 win
over Schalke to move to within one point of the German side for second place,
while Chelsea sits three points above Schalke at the top of the group.
FC Porto is through to the knockout round after a 2-0 win at Athletic Bilbao
thanks to second-half goals from Jackson Martinez and Yacine Brahimi, while
Shakhtar Donetsk rolled to a 5-0 win over BATE Borisov as Luiz Adriano scored
a second-half trick, giving him nine goals in four Champions League games.
