Man City to complain after Toure subjected to abuse in Moscow

A brace from Sergio Aguero helps team rally and win 2-1 under testing conditions in the Russian capital.

Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero, right, was on target twice in the 2-1 win in Moscow. Alexander Nemenov / AFP

MOSCOW // Manchester City got their Uefa Champions League bid back on track last night, coming from behind to beat CSKA Moscow 2-1 in testing conditions in the Russian capital.

CSKA took a 32nd-minute lead thanks to the former Manchester United winger Zoran Tosic, but Sergio Aguero quickly equalised and then put the English Premier League club in front before the interval at the Arena Khimki.

Aguero, who scored twice in the 3-1 weekend victory at West Ham United, picked up where he left off to give Manuel Pellegrini’s side a second victory in Group D that leaves them well-placed, along with Bayern Munich, to progress to the competition’s knock-out stages.

“It is an important win,” Pellegrini told the UK’s Sky Sports 2. “Now we have to play the next two games at home. I told the players that we had to make sure we didn’t lose this one. We are not in the next round yet but this was an important step.”

Reaching the last 16 is something City have never managed to do before despite their huge outlay on players in recent seasons, but their attacking quality shone through on a poor pitch in cold conditions and in an unsavoury atmosphere.

Heavy rains last month seriously damaged pitches in Moscow to the extent that Leonid Slutski’s side had to play their last home group game against Viktoria Pilsen hundreds of kilometres away in St Petersburg.

The pitch at their temporary Khimki Arena home was passed fit for the visit of City, but it was far from ideal. Also, City’s Ivorian midfielder Yaya Toure said he was subjected to monkey chants from spectators within the stadium.

“It is quite disappointing when you’re talking about people continuing to do that,” Toure told Sky Sports 2. “It is unbelievable and very sad on my part. I think Uefa need to do something strong. It would be nice if we could stop that.”

City said they intend to submit an official complaint to Uefa over the alleged racist chanting aimed at Toure when they return to Manchester today.

That could lead to further problems for CSKA, who have not won, or even scored a goal, in any of their past five games in the Russian Premier League and now face an uphill battle to qualify for the last 16 after this result.

City’s defence was again missing Vincent Kompany and their soft centre was exposed when the hosts took the lead just after the half-hour mark. A long ball was headed on by Keisuke Honda to Tosic, and the Serbian winger, lobbed a shot over Joe Hart to open the scoring.

But City responded smartly to falling behind, drawing level barely two minutes later. Sergei Ignashevich failed to clear a low David Silva cross from the left, and Aguero took advantage, allowing himself a touch before prodding past the exposed Igor Akinfeev.

The game became more open after that, and the visitors took the lead three minutes before the break, Aguero heading home a cross from Alvaro Negredo.

Follow us on twitter at @SprtNationalUAE