Real lets victory slip

Real Madrid surrendered its perfect record in this season’s Champions League on a frigid night in Moscow, conceding a late goal in a 1-1 tie against CSKA. José Mourinho had said ahead of the game that he would play a serious match, despite his opponent being shorn of several key players through injuries and the recent departure of its record scorer, Vágner Love. Wearing blank shirts because of Russian regulations banning the advertising of gaming houses, Mourinho took no gambles with his team selection, benching the slightly static Ricardo Carvalho and fielding Sergio Ramos and Pepe in the heart of defense to deal with lightning-quick CSKA forward Seydou Doumbia.

The home side carved out the first chance of the match, Alan Dzagoev applying an inaccurate volley to the business end of a CSKA attack. Real was then dealt a blow when Karim Benzema limped off seconds after pulling his side’s first clear chance wide of Sergei Chepchugov’s goal. Gonzalo Higuaín replaced the French striker and wasted little time in warming Chepchugov’s hands after a Real move scythed through CSKA’s brittle defense. Ronaldo then thrashed a left-footed shot on 28 minutes for the opener following a bad clearance.

After the break, Real began to test the home side’s resolve with a series of trademark quick breaks. José Callejón, who boasts the highest shots-to-goal ratio of any player in La Liga this season, skewed a shot wide when a simple square ball to Higuaín could have doubled Real’s lead, and a minute later attempted to dance through the defense only to be thwarted by CSKA’s weight of numbers. Ronaldo twice went close as the clock wound down, first being denied by Chepchugov’s glove and then narrowly missing the CSKA keeper’s far post with a rasping drive.

Such profligacy was to prove costly in the 92nd minute when Pontus Wernbloom, making his debut for the Russians, crashed home a sloppy clearance in CSKA’s final roll of the dice to level the tie.