Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini was bullish before the game claiming his team could not only qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League but actually win the competition. However he was given a reality check as City lost 2-1 at home to CSKA Moscow, reportedly one of the weaker teams in Group E, and also ended the game with nine men following the second half dismissals of Fernandinho and Yaya Toure.
And whilst the red cards and a couple of late penalty claims were obvious talking points, overall City performed poorly and have not kept a clean sheet in their last 10 Champions League matches.
The Chilean refused to be drawn on the sending offs preferring to ponder why his team played so badly after the weekend victory over Manchester United.
"It is very difficult to explain the performance today after our game against Manchester United. But if you give away two soft goals it becomes very difficult to win.
"I don't want to analyse the referees decisions as to the red cards or the penalties, my job is to analyse why we are not playing like we can do.
"I don't want to concentrate on the referee as an excuse as our performance was our own not the referees.
