Seydou Doumbia scored CSKA’s first goal from Ahmed Musa’s pass

When James Milner doubled Manchester City’s lead against CSKA Moscow in an empty (well, almost) Arena Khimki the destiny of the points seemed to be done and dusted.  A stat popped up during the half time interval stating that no English team had ever lost a game when they were leading by two goals or more at half time.

In fact, out of the 84 times that happened, the English team with the lead won 81 times while the game ended in a draw just thrice. Who would have thought that our game against CSKA Moscow was going to make it four times out of 85.

James Milner scored the second goal for Manchester City after reacting earliest to a ball across the box

The match itself was played out in front of around 600 CSKA fans whose presence inside the stadium should surely be considered as defiance of UEFA Law and it is absolutely bewildering as to how they were allowed inside the stadium. What is even more amazing is the fact that CSKA Moscow have supposedly broken no rules as UEFA confirmed a few days back. So, in the end, the game in Russia was played in front of no Manchester City fans which surely came as a blow to our boys in blue.

In fact, skipper Vincent Kompany came out to voice his displeasure with the UEFA ruling which only managed to ensure that no Citizens were allowed to attend the game, hence giving the home side an advantage. Coming back to the football, the match saw two different City sides turn up, one was the first half team that blew away the opposition with some smooth attacking play, and the other was the team that played in the second half, which did absolutely nothing but watch their opponents come back from being two goals down.  Watching City play in Europe is something that we Citizens really need getting used to because our performances are never as good enough as the ones we put in week in week out in the Premier League.

It is pretty hard watching your favourite team breeze past the opposition, even the best of the best in England during the weekends and later falling flat on their faces in Europe during the week. Manchester City, at this point of time are much better than their European track record suggest, but what we need to accept is that it is ultimately down to the team themselves to get their stock in Europe’s elite football competition back up.

Jesus Navas was introduced in the second half as City looked to hold onto their two goal lead

It is hard for any Manchester City fan to accept, but surely complacency played a part as we threw away a two goal lead in an almost inhospitable Khimki Arena with sub-zero temperatures. Our second half performance was very poor and although the penalty was an extremely soft one, the equalizer did seem to be coming.

Even before Seydou Doumbia scored CSKA’s first from an Ahmed Musa cross, Roman Eremenko came close with his volley in what should have been our wake up call. Throwing Jesus Navas in place of Edin Dzeko was surely to offer City more up the pitch even as they started falling deeper and deeper towards their own goal and the change to put on Fernandinho in place of David Silva was a rather desperate attempt to wrestle control of the game.

The game was headed for a very nervous finish for City and the fact that we conceded a goal, albeit under dubious circumstances, did not come as a surprise. Manuel Pellegrini blamed the freezing temperatures for his players not being able to maintain their concentration in his post match press conference but we need to keep in mind that Europe’s elite would not let the cold get between themselves and three more points, just like Bayern Munich did in their 1-0 win over CSKA at the same stadium almost a month ago.

At this point of time however, Pellegrini and his players need to figure out what it is that is keeping them from reaching the dizzy heights they usually do in the Premier League and for the sake of our Champions League existence, let’s hope they figure it out soon.