CSKA Moscow vs Manchester United match report: Anthony Martial makes amends for early hand ball with superb equalising header

CSKA Moscow 1 Manchester United 1

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The match began with a banner unfurling the length of the stadium with the words “The Exorcist” above an image of the priest entering the possessed house. Vladimir Putin’s capital is not the place you associate with elaborate jokes but this was one – CSKA Moscow were playing the Red Devils and thus an exorcism of sorts was required.

It probably wasn’t funny enough to justify the trouble of making the thing but there was an exorcism in the 90 minutes that followed. It involved Anthony Martial. In the first half, the Premier League’s most expensive teenager had inexplicably handled the ball to give CSKA Moscow an advantage they seldom looked like squandering until Martial headed home an equaliser that gave United a precious point.

Whether they deserved it was a moot point. Certainly, Paul Scholes, commentating on the game, saw a performance that delivered little movement and fewer passes to Wayne Rooney. Seven years ago, he and Rooney won the European Cup here and of the 500 or so Manchester United supporters who had made the journey to Russia, only the very optimistic would envisage them contesting this season’s final in Milan.

Nevertheless, any point away from home in the Champions League is a good one and once Louis van Gaal had made his substitutes and introduced three men from the Low Countries – Marouane Fellaini, Memphis Depay and Daley Blind - Manchester United looked a far more settled side.

They finished the night in second place in Group B, level on points with CSKA and two behind Wolfsburg. Two of their last three matches are at Old Trafford and Van Gaal would back his team to qualify from here. How much further they are likely to go is another question entirely.

Moscow had enjoyed a perfect late autumn day. In Red Square, where in 1992 Alex Ferguson once posed with a Red Army cap- the kind of stunt he quickly tired of – the sunlight had glinted off the domes of the Kremlin and St Basil’s Cathedral. The day had, however, given way to a bitterly cold night, although while most of CSKA’s players wore gloves, few of Louis van Gaal’s did. They were prepared to brave the temperatures although keeping out the home team would prove rather more problematic.

On their last away game in the Champions League, in Eindhoven, United had lost Luke Shaw in appalling circumstances. It may not have been a coincidence that CSKA’s greatest threat came down their right especially, from their Brazilian defender, Mario Fernandes.

His first cross landed inches from the tips of Georgi Schennikov’s boots and while attempting to deal with another surge from Fernandes, Martial blocked a cross using his hand.

It was a piece of stupidity which could have only one possible outcome, although by the time the Spanish referee, Carlos Carballo, had blown for the penalty, Fernandes had already loosed fired off a shot that De Gea tipped over the bar.

Just before Roman Eremenko went up to take the spot kick, Bastian Schweinsteiger went over to talk to his goalkeeper. If he had some information about where Eremenko would place his penalty, David De Gea certainly went the right way, tipping the shot at full stretch on to the post. It would bring him no reward.

Seydou Doumbia scored against City at the Khimki Arena last October and twice at the Etihad Stadium and he maintained his record against the Manchester clubs by reacting quickest to the rebound. De Gea had scrambled to his feet by the time Doumbia shot, but had no hope of preventing the goal.

Suddenly, CSKA looked rampant with Ahmed Mousa shooting on sight 30 yards from goal and forced a back-pedalling De Gea to once more tip a drive over his crossbar.

United, with young Jesse Lingard holding position on the left, may have ended the half with 62 per cent of the possession but it produced only one worthwhile shot of note, and Wayne Rooney’s effort drifted wide of the post. During the interval, Van Gaal replaced Schweinsteiger with Marouane Fellaini.

The big Belgian is an impact player and now United needed one far sooner than they could have expected.

They had to wait 20 long minutes for the impact to come and it was Martial who made it, dealing with Antonio Valencia’s cross rather better than he had with Fernandes’. He met it with a downward header that bounced just in front of Igor Akinfeev and struck the post before going in.

CSKA’s goalkeeper captain rounded on his players in general and Zoran Tosic in particular. Martial, with his fifth goal for United and his first in the Champions League, was beset by happier thoughts.