Manchester City 1 CSKA Moscow 2, match report: Fernandinho and Yaya Toure sent off in shambolic defeat City were guilty of naivety and a paucity of self-belief yet Pellegrini cannot be held culpable for individual errors. The amiable Chilean was brought in from Malaga to build City into a European force but they are now bottom of Group E, needing to win against Bayern Munich at home and Roma away to progress to the knockout stage, and also relying on other results. City are 10 points behind Bayern after four games. This was not what Abu Dhabi ordered. Pellegrini commendably refused to blame the referee, preferring to focus on the weaknesses in his players. Yet Kompany and co were clearly incensed by the actions of Tasos Sidiropoulos. At the final whistle, the Greek referee was surrounded by a seething throng of players in blue, first Samir Nasri, then Pablo Zabaleta and Sergio Agüero before Kompany and Joe Hart joined in the protest movement as City fans turned the air blue, baying dissent at the referee, at Uefa and at CSKA. If hardly in the league of Tom Henning Ovrebro's incompetence at Stamford Bridge in 2009, it was not a good performance by Sidiropoulos, the 35-year-old who has been an international referee since only 2011, but mainly involved in under-17s games, Europa League fixtures and the occasional Euro 2016 qualifier. Following controversial events in Moscow, and rising tensions between the clubs, the wisdom of giving such a potentially fractious fixture to such an inexperienced official was questionable. Yet little argument could be had with his decisions to expel Fernandinho and Touré from the fray. The Brazilian departed for two quickfire yellows, the first a foul on Alan Dzagoev after 61 minutes and the second for impeding Ahmed Musa on the edge of the area eight minutes later. With 10 minutes left, Touré raised his hands to Roman Eremenko was given a straight red for violent conduct and similarly deserved to walk. Where Sidiropoulos messed up, and needs sanctioning by Uefa, was for a dreadful case of mistaken identity after 76 minutes, cautioning Sergei Ignashevich for a foul on Agüero when the offence had been committed by Pontus Wernbloom, who had tried twice to bring him down. As the Swedish international was already on a booking following a first-half body-check of such ferocity that it sent Touré flying through the air, he should have walked. Kompany pointed at Wernbloom but Sidiropoulos brandished the card at Ignashevich, causing City's captain almost to dissolve in disbelief. Sidiropoulos then denied Agüero a late penalty appeal when the Argentinian was clearly fouled by Ignashevich, who stood over the City attacker signaling a dive. Adding insult to iniquity, Sidiropoulos booked Agüero, who looked bemused as well as slightly bruised. Beware Greeks bearing gaffes. Premier League teams also require some lessons in European combat. As fireworks pierced the night sky, this midweek provided a bonfire of the vanities for English sides who so pride themselves on the strength of the Premier League; defeats for City and Liverpool and draws for Arsenal and Chelsea hardly suggested any possibility of English hegemony in Europe. Improving concentration would be a start. The English champions have been the worst in Europe, albeit in the hardest group. This was a desperate night for City, a night of protest on and off the field. The cold war had begun early with supporters of the English hosts demanding that police and stewards remove Russian interlopers. CSKA fans were banned from attending following racist incidents in Moscow but some managed to infiltrate, revealing themselves when celebrating CSKA's first-half goals and eventually being led away. It made for a strange atmosphere with City fans also booing the Champions League anthem in protest at the lax way Uefa handled CSKA's recent racism and the fact that 300 home fans could watch the first game, supposedly behind closed doors. The team were hardly inspiring the fans, hardly distracting them from their game of spot the Russian. Pellegrini had called on his players to show greater concentration, avoiding defensive lapses, but they failed to mark with sufficient rigour early on, gifting CSKA the lead after only two minutes. When Gael Clichy gave away a cheap free-kick for hand-ball, Bebras Natcho curled the ball over from the right. Seydou Doumbia escaped from the slumbering Touré and headed powerfully past Hart. Doumbia celebrated by fishing out a dummy from his sock and sucking it. Touré made amends for that absent marking within six minutes. When Stefan Jovetic was brought down on the edge of the CSKA area, Touré curled the free-kick sweetly over the wall and past Igor Akinfeev. Instead of seizing control, City remained vulnerable. When Martin Demichelis slipped, Doumbia had a free run on goal and should have scored but shot wide. After 33 minutes, CSKA broke through again. Demichelis had got the situation under control, closing down Musa, winning the ball but Clichy wildly hammered the ball to Natcho. He slipped the ball behind Zabaleta for Doumbia to run through and beat Hart. Pellegrini made his double change at the break, bringing Fernandinho briefly into midfield to assist Fernando and Touré. Jovetic was taken off. Jesus Navas" exit brought Nasri on to the left with James Milner switching right. He still got forward and was denied by the superb Akinfeev. Pellegrini reverted to a two-man attack, sending on Edin Dzeko for Fernando. Dzeko was thwarted by Akinfeev but City's indiscipline and Sidiropoulos" inabilities cost them.