Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has admitted his side are suffering a "crisis of confidence”, after a 2-1 home defeat to CSKA Moscow put a huge dent in their Champions League hopes.
It was a miserable night for the Premier League champions in front of a packed Etihad Stadium crowd, with Seydou Doumbia scoring twice in the first-half to seal the visitors’ victory, while midfielders Fernandinho and Yaya Toure were both sent off for the hosts after the break.
The result continues the Blues’ winless run in this season’s competition and leaves them bottom of Group E, with the side needing to beat both Bayern Munich and Roma to book their place in the last-16.
It also means the out-of-form Blues have won just once in their last five games, following defeats to West Ham in the Premier League and Newcastle United in the Capital One Cup.
"It's a crisis of confidence, of course, I don't understand why but we must find a reason, talk with the players every day and try to win again,” Pellegrini said following the Champions League loss.
"It's very difficult to understand why we played so badly,” the boss added on his side’s performance against CSKA.
"From the beginning we were so nervous and we gave them the two goals. Really, we didn't play.
"The first half especially, we didn't see the team we normally see. We didn't shoot once at their goal, we just had Yaya's free-kick, and we gave away two easy goals.
"It's a strange moment to understand why it happened. I don't think it's just this competition, the last two weeks we are not playing the way we normally do.
"We are in a bad moment with the performance but the only way is to try and arrange is to continue working and work out why there is a lack of trust with the players.
"Normally we are a very disciplined team so for me it is more important we return to our normal performance."
Despite the odds being stacked against them, Pellegrini refused to rule out the possibility that City could still qualify for the knock-out stages.
The Chilean said: "If you have the mathematical option to qualify, you must fight for them. We must first try to play against QPR, then we have the international break and then we are going to try to qualify for the next stage.
"It is more difficult but it is not impossible."
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