With confidence restored by victory over Manchester United, Manchester City will attempt to rescue their Champions League campaign when they tackle CSKA Moscow at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday.
Sunday’s 1-0 defeat of United in the derby saw City snap a run of three games without victory and took them to within six points of Premier League leaders Chelsea, but in Europe their fate is in the balance.
Having picked up only two points from their first three Group E matches, City no longer have any margin for error and will be left on the brink of a third group-stage exit in four years if they fail to win on Wednesday.
CELEBRATION… CSKA, Moscow Nigerian star Ahmed Musa celebrates with his coach Igor Cherevechenko after scoring.
Manuel Pellegrini’s side squandered a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 at CSKA two weeks ago and with a home game against Bayern Munich and a trip to Roma to follow, the English champions cannot afford to drop points again.
City left-back Gael Clichy, who was called into the team to face United after Aleksandar Kolarov was injured in the warm-up, has urged his team-mates not to get carried away by their derby triumph.
“It’s a totally different competition, so it’s not because we’ve won (against United) that we’re going to play well and win against Moscow,” he told the City website.
“Hopefully we can start winning, because we haven’t won a game yet in this competition. We still have a chance to go through and that’s the main objective for the club.
“A team like us should go through and do well in Europe. It starts on Wednesday and that will be a big game as well.”
City were aggrieved that some 350 home fans managed to obtain sponsors’ tickets to watch the teams’ last meeting after CSKA were ordered to play three home matches behind closed doors as a punishment for a series of offences including racist chanting.
UEFA subsequently reduced their punishment to playing two home matches without supporters, although CSKA are still banned from selling tickets to their fans for the club’s remaining two away games.
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