Manchester City face crucial Champions League tie without inspirational leader Kompany

Date: 23rd October 2013

Venue: Arena Khimki

KO: 5pm

CSKA Moscow come into this match having not won or even scored a goal since their last Champions League outing and will be looking to bounce back from consecutive 2-0 defeats in the Russian Premier League. Manchester City on the other hand, are in reasonably good form after their 1-3 win over West Ham at the weekend.

However, a trip to the Arena Khimki will be like nothing many of the City players have ever experienced before. Fernandinho, the Manchester City midfielder, was the latest in a long line earlier this week to criticise the artificial pitch in Moscow.

CSKA were made to move their last Champions League fixture against Plzen to St. Petersburg because of UEFA concerns about the state of the Arena Khimki’s pitch. It has been passed as ‘fit for play’ for this fixture by UEFA, but concerns emanating from the City camp about the pitch are clear to see.

Team News: CSKA Moscow

As if CSKA didn’t have enough of a task ahead of them, facing one of the most feared teams in Europe, the Russian club will have to confront City without several key players; Brazilian defender Mario Fernandez, Latvian midfielder Aleksandrs Cauna and Russian international playmaker Alan Dzagoev are all injured.

Meanwhile, their Ivory Coast international striker Seydou Doumbia, who came on as a late substitute in Friday’s 2-0 defeat in Zenit St. Petersburg, is still not at his best having just recovered from a back injury. First-choice goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev missed the league match because of a swollen knee, but CSKA manager Leonid Slutsky said: “[he was] hoping he would be able to play on Wednesday.”

Team News: Manchester City

Man City are also struggling with injuries. The Citizens are without captain Vincent Kompany, Martin Demichellis and Jack Rodwell. Kompany returned to action in recent weeks after missing many games at the start of the season, but then picked up a thigh injury which forced him out of Saturday’s convincing win against West Ham.

The Belgian is a huge miss for City but manager, Manuel Pellegrini is likely to start the majority of the team that played Bayern and Plzen in previous group games.

Recent Form:

Both teams come into this game after receiving somewhat of a hammering from Champions League favourites, Bayern Munich at some point in the two group games to-date. However, both teams have played impressively well in their other group game, City beating Plzen and CSKA beat Plzen at ‘home’ 3-2.

As you can see from the current group standings in Group D, both CSKA and City will be fighting for second in the group behind the current defending champions, Bayern. Therefore, this game and the reverse fixture in a couple of weeks will go a long way to determine who, out of these two, will stake the biggest claim to the second qualifying spot in Group D.

Players to Watch:

CSKA Moscow – Keisuke Honda

Keisuke Honda will be City’s main threat on Wednesday, and what a threat he is. The Japanese midfielder is among Europe’s best in terms of creativity, this is mainly down to his versatility.

Honda plays as a central attacking midfielder, but he can equally play as a second striker or a deep-lying playmaker. Because of this versatility, he can cause a threat from many areas, however with the chances of Seydou Doumbia playing lessening by the minute; Honda’s threat lessens with it. Honda and Doumbia have created a lethal partnership between them in the Russian Premier League.

Manchester City – Yaya Toure

Although Manchester City’s team is packed-full of superstars, Yaya Toure is the one who sticks out. The former Barcelona midfielder’s powerful, surging runs at opposition defences is well-known and is well-feared, across Europe, add his terrific solo strike against Plzen to that, and you’ve got an almost unstoppable force in the centre of City’s midfield.

Toure is a player that, when he’s on his game, he and City are unstoppable; many Citizen fans will be hoping he pulls out one of those performances on tonight.

Prediction:

Although CSKA have only been beaten once at home in a competitive game in 2013, that game was around two weeks ago and with the amount of players CSKA have out on the treatment table, there’s only one result – that’s a City win and after Citizens victory in Plzen, it could turn in to something of a rout.

CSKA Moscow 1-3 Manchester City