City duo apologise for red cards

Manchester City's Fernandinho and Yaya Toure have apologised for their red cards during Wednesday's 2-1 defeat to CSKA Moscow.

The result left City in deep trouble in their Champions League group, with qualification now out of their hands.

The good news is they are only two points behind second place with two games to go, despite having yet to win in this season's competition.

However, City will bow out if they fail to beat Bayern Munich on matchday five and there is a winner in the game between CSKA and Roma.

Fernandinho and Yaya Toure were both dismissed in the second half as City again crumbled on a miserable night at the Etihad Stadium. Both players later apologised.

Fernandinho tweeted: "Feeling very sad for the result and for my sent off (sic) tonight. I want to apologise with my team mates and fans for the red card. Sorry."

A tweet from Toure read: "City fans - I am sorry for my red card. I feel it is important to apologise for this."

Sergio Aguero was aggrieved not to be awarded two penalties late in the game while City could also claim CSKA's Pontus Wernbloom should have been sent off.

Despite these possible injustices, City boss Manuel Pellegrini offered no excuses.

He said: "The difference was not just the mistakes of the referee. I think we cannot play the way we played if we want to win.

"I don't want to have any excuse about the way we played. That's why I don't want to link the referee with the result."

City had hoped to kickstart their Champions League campaign after securing a morale-boosting derby win over Manchester United last weekend, but Pellegrini was puzzled by the lacklustre performance.

The Chilean said: "It is difficult to understand why we played so low a performance. We are in a bad moment with the performance but the only way to try and arrange is to continue working and work out why there is a lack of trust with the players."