English champions Manchester City face the prospect of a third Champions League group-phase exit in four years after a disastrous 2-1 loss at home to CSKA Moscow on Wednesday.
CSKA claimed their first win on English soil at the sixth attempt after Seydou Doumbia scored either side of a free-kick by Yaya Toure, who was sent off in the second half at the Etihad Stadium along with teammate Fernandinho.
CSKA’s Pontus Wernbloom avoided a second yellow card in an apparent case of mistaken identity, but City manager Manuel Pellegrini said referee Tasos Sidiropoulos was not to blame for his side’s dismal performance.
Photo: Reuters
“I don’t think the sendings-off decided the match. It was in the first half when we weren’t ourselves,” he told Sky Sports. “It is a crisis of confidence and we must find out why by talking to the players every day and working together.”
Fernandinho, a halftime substitute, was dismissed for two bookable offenses and key midfielder Toure was red-carded for pushing Roman Eremenko in the face, leaving the home side with only nine men.
Both players will miss City’s next game, at home to Bayern Munich on Nov. 25, when if Pellegrini’s side fail to win and there is a victor in the other Group E game between CSKA and Roma, they will be out.
“We had chances in the first half and the second half, and we’re happy that our plan worked,” CSKA coach Leonid Slutsky said. “The fact there were two red cards awarded makes us feel we made their players very nervous.”
On a cold night in Manchester, City’s fans booed the Champions League anthem in protest after away supporters were prevented from watching the 2-2 draw between the teams in the reverse fixture two weeks ago.
That game was played behind closed doors due to a punishment imposed on CSKA for racist chanting by their supporters.
City’s fans reacted angrily when they realized that a small band of CSKA supporters had made their way inside the Etihad despite being banned, chanting for their removal until police escorted the interlopers out.
City made the worst possible start when Doumbia, who retired from international soccer earlier this year, escaped the attentions of former Ivory Coast teammate Toure to head in Bebras Natcho’s right-wing free-kick in the second minute.
Toure allowed his man to slip away from him too easily, but the hulking midfielder atoned six minutes later, when he swept a glorious 25m free-kick into the top-left corner after a foul on Stevan Jovetic.
Visiting goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev twice saved from Sergio Aguero and once from Martin Demichelis as City attempted to assert control, but sloppiness at the back meant that the home side continued to look vulnerable.
Doumbia gave them a scare when he ran onto Alan Dzagoev’s sumptuous through-ball before shooting narrowly wide, and City did not heed the warning.
Eleven minutes before halftime, Gael Clichy played a blind, panicky clearance straight to Natcho, and the Israeli freed Doumbia to roll his second goal of the night past the exposed Joe Hart.
Pellegrini had kept faith with the team that beat Manchester United 1-0 on Sunday, but he shook things up at halftime, introducing Samir Nasri and Fernandinho for Jovetic and Jesus Navas.
City began to force CSKA back, James Milner curling in a cross that narrowly eluded Aguero and then forcing Akinfeev to save with his legs.
However, with 20 minutes to play, they lost Fernandinho, who was shown a second yellow card for blocking off Ahmed Musa, only eight minutes after he had been booked for fouling Dzagoev.
Sidiropoulos angered City by booking Sergei Ignashevich after Wernbloom, who had already been booked, held back Aguero, but Toure could have no complaints over his straight red card for a petulant shove to the face of Eremenko.
To add insult to injury, Aguero was booked for diving and also saw a strong penalty appeal turned down in stoppage-time.
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
The San Francisco Giants signed 18-year-old Taiwanese pitcher Yang Nien-hsi (陽念希) to a contract worth a total of US$500,000 (NT $16.39 million). At a press event in Taipei on Wednesday, Jan. 22, the Giants’ Pacific Rim Area scout Evan Hsueh (薛奕煌) presented Yang with a Giants jersey to celebrate the signing. The deal consisted of a contract worth US$450,000 plus a US$50,000 scholarship bonus. Yang, who stands at 188 centimeters tall and weighs 85 kilograms, is of Indigenous Amis descent. With his fastest pitch clocking in at 150 kilometers per hour, Yang had been on Hsueh’s radar since playing in the HuaNan Cup
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
RSS