Manchester City vs CSKA Moscow: Fernandinho and Yaya Toure apologise to City fans after red card fiasco

Yaya Toure is shown a red card in the 2-1 defeat to CSKA Moscow (Getty Images)

Manchester City were left on the brink of Champions League elimination after having two men sent off in a dismal defeat to CSKA Moscow.

Fernandinho and Yaya Toure were both dismissed in the second half as City again crumbled on the European stage, losing 2-1 on a miserable night at the Etihad Stadium.

The result left them bottom of Group E with just two points from four games. City will now go out of the competition if they fail to beat Bayern Munich on matchday five and there is a winner in the game between CSKA and Roma.

City were stunned in the second minute as Seydou Doumbia, who inspired CSKA's comeback from 2-0 down to draw against City a fortnight ago, headed the opener.

Toure curled in a superb free-kick to equalise soon after but Doumbia capitalised on poor defending to restore the Russians' lead before the break. It was his fifth goal in four matches against CSKA over the past year.

City again lacked spark, as they have for much of the season so far, and their hopes of a fightback evaporated as Fernandinho and Toure saw red in the second half.

Fernandinho received a second booking for blocking Ahmed Musa and Toure gave the referee little option as raised his hands to push away Roman Eremenko.

Both players later apologised.

Fernandinho tweeted: "Feeling very sad for the result and for my sent off tonight. I want to apologise with my team mates and fans for the red card. Sorry."

A tweet from Toure read: "City fans - I am sorry for my red card. I feel it is important to apologise for this."

Sergio Aguero was aggrieved not to be awarded two penalties late in the game while City could also claim CSKA's Pontus Wernbloom should have been sent off.

The Swede had already been booked when the referee whistled for his apparent foul on Aguero, but the yellow card shown in the chaotic aftermath was to Sergei Ignashevich.

Despite these possible injustices, City boss Manuel Pellegrini offered no excuses.

He said: "The difference was not just the mistakes of the referee. I think we cannot play the way we played if we want to win.

"I don't want to have any excuse about the way we played. That's why I don't want to link the referee with the result."

City had hoped to kickstart their Champions League campaign after securing a morale-boosting derby win over Manchester United last weekend, but Pellegrini was puzzled by the lacklustre performance.

Toure is shown a red card in the 2-1 defeat to CSKA Moscow (Getty Images)

The Chilean said: "It is difficult to understand why we played so low a performance. We are in a bad moment with the performance but the only way to try and arrange is to continue working and work out why there is a lack of trust with the players."

There has been much rancour between the clubs in their four games over the past year.

Asked if these problems made the result sweeter, CSKA coach Leonid Slutsky said: "Yes, of course."

PA