Manchester City are on the brink of Champions League elimination after their nine men fell to a potentially fatal 2-1 home defeat to CSKA Moscow this evening.
Seydou Doumbia was again the tormentor of the Premier League champions as he scored either side of a Yaya Toure free kick to earn the Russians a deserved win.
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Fernandinho and Toure were both sent off in the second half as City frustrations boiled over, and the result sees them drop to the bottom of Group E with only two points and no wins from their four games.
They will be knocked out of the tournament at the group stage for a third year in four if they lose to Bayern Munich, and there is a winner in the match between CSKA and Roma in two weeks' time.
Doumbia, who scored off the bench in the 2-2 draw between these sides a fortnight ago, headed the Russians ahead at the Etihad Stadium when Toure allowed him to run free from a set piece.
City's Ivorian midfielder made amends on eight minutes by whipping an unstoppable free kick, earned by Stevan Jovetic's driving run, into the top corner from 22 yards.
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The hosts had a brief period on top as Jesus Navas wasted a promising chance from inside the box and Sergio Aguero weaved his way into a shooting position before having a low shot saved at the near post.
However, they were open at the back throughout the first half and Moscow made the most of one of several dangerous breaks forward when Doumbia scored a fifth goal in three games against the Citizens.
Martin Demichelis poked the ball away from Musa Ahmed, only for Gael Clichy's hashed clearance to gift it back to CSKA, and Bibras Natkho slipped in Doumbia to finish emphatically into the bottom corner.
A City response was slow in coming after the break and it took them until the hour mark to fashion even a half-chance as James Milner crossed just out of the reach of the stretching Aguero at the back post.
Milner himself brought a good save out of Igor Akinfeev on 62 minutes as the Moscow keeper stuck out a foot to thwart his right-footed shot from 15 yards, but the visiting skipper was rarely tested again.
Edin Dzeko came on in Manuel Pellegrini's last throw of the dice, but any attacking momentum that City were building was lost when half-time substitute Fernandinho was sent off for two quick bookings.
The Brazilian midfielder was firstly penalised for blatantly preventing a counter-attack, and he was cautioned again on 70 minutes for blocking the run of Musa as the forward went to collect a return pass.
The indisciplined Toure followed his teammate down the tunnel 11 minutes later. City's goalscorer had already been booked, but was shown a straight red card for pushing Roman Eremenko in the face.
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With Toure's dismissal perhaps went City's chances, but the home side were incensed that the Greek referee, officiating only his second Champions League match, had not earlier equalled the numbers up.
He mistakenly showed Sergei Ignashevich a yellow card when the already-cautioned Pontus Wernbloom was the offender for a foul on Aguero, who was booked for diving when trying to win City a late spot kick.
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Joe Hart kept them in the contest with an acrobatic late save from Musa, but the Citizens could not conjure anything at the other end as CSKA survived another Aguero penalty shout to become the first Russian side to win in the Champions League on English soil.
Joe Fish
