Where Did Manchester City Go Wrong?

Manchester City took on CSKA Moscow in their third Champions League group stage match on Tuesday, and despite an extremely convincing first half performance they only managed to take 1 point from the clash.

The Manchester outfit went into half time with a 2-0 lead over the Moscow side, with two great goals from James Milner and Sergio Aguero. The side's general play throughout the first half was of the quality that you would expect from a side of City's reputation and quality, with some incredible passing, movement and finishing on display. This however, was not to continue as the team came out of the tunnel after the interval.

Once the teams returned to the pitch, the domination displayed in the first half was replaced with more sloppy, and more panicked play. This provided Moscow's substitute Seydou Dumbia with the opportunity to tap in a much deserved reward for their continued pressure in the 64th minute, before getting his team the controversial penalty that teammate Bibras Natkho slotted home in the 86th minute to ensure City would only be taking one point away with them.

So what did go wrong in the second half for City? Well the simplest answer is that they switched off. After the way they played in the second half, the players went into the dressing rooms full of confidence regarding their performance. The only problem being, this confidence led to sloppy play and a poor attitude when they re-entered the game. They consistently gave the ball away, whether it was via a poor touch, or in some cases a truly shocking pass, they did not look like a team with any urgency or conviction in their football. It wasn't until the ball hit the back of their net for the second time that they started to play like the team we had seen earlier, however its fair to say that this was too little too late as they just couldn't recreate their dominance in the short time period that they had left.

City now have a hard task ahead as they are trailing by 7 points behind group leaders Bayern Munich, and by 2 points to second place Roma with only 3 games left to play. I think its fair to say that Pelligrini's side will have a bit or work today to ensure that they are ready for the big tests that they face in the upcoming months.