City won the reverse fixture 2-1, coming from behind, courtesy of two Sergio Aguero goals, the match was played on a terrible playing surface which the English club and coach Manuel Pellegrini were clearly unhappy with and were perhaps fortunate to come away with all three points, keeper Joe Hart coming to their rescue deep in stoppage time, with a hugely important save. Another three points for City tonight would secure progression from this group, provided Bayern did not lose at Plzen and that would mean they could focus fully on the Premier League for the next three months, so, very valuable.

CSKA have scored nine goals in their three starts since the first meeting and look sure to need a goal or two this evening, to keep matters alive a little longer and are fully capable of doing so. City have a hugely impressive home record of 5-0-0 (20-2 goal difference) in the EPL this season, but conceded to the only two "stronger" teams they faced (Man Utd and Everton) and it was a very similar story at the Etihad Stadium last season, with City conceding in all but one match against the "Big 7" clubs and in that, Frank Lampard missed a penalty for Chelsea. In Champions League matches over the two campaigns, they have conceded in all four, seven goals in total and whilst they have met very high quality opponents, Real Madrid, Bayern, Dortmund and Ajax, they were fortunate to "only" allow those seven and if a limited Ajax team can score twice, this CSKA team can definitely notch at least one.

One very motivated visitor will be Zoran Tošić, who scored in Moscow and four times in his last two domestic league games, he only played twice for Manchester United in his 14 months at Old Trafford after a high profile transfer and will be very keen to do well back in the city and his form has clearly blossomed the nearer the matches with City came. He is very good from dead ball situations and looks a decent shout at 8.0-10.0 in the anytime goalscorer market. However, I prefer both teams to score, which is a big looking 2.20-2.25 general quote and I will take that for 1.5 units, I have seen 2.20 in a place or two just for CSKA to score, which would obviously be better, but is not freely available.

Like their cross town rivals, City always look more vunerable against teams who are prepared to attack them and missing Vincent Kompany again tonight, I would be surprised if CSKA didn't get a few opportunities and the bonus with this bet is that if the game opens up, City will not be too concerned if they concede, as long as they claim the points.

Good Luck.