LONDON: This was supposed to be the season Manchester City finally made a sustained push in the Champions League. It’s not working out that way for the English champions.

City are the most high-profile team in early trouble in Europe’s elite club competition after picking up just one point from its first two group games.

It means City manager Manuel Pellegrini is already treating Tuesday’s trip to CSKA Moscow, the first of a double-header against the Russian side, like “a final”, while Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Paris St Germain are among the sides in action elsewhere.

Barcelona play Ajax Amsterdam in a Champions League match between European aristocracy with eight European Cup wins between them.

The game between AS Roma and Bayern Munich in Rome, another heavyweight affair, gives Francesco Totti another chance to beat his own record as the oldest man to score in the competition.

Since an influx of Abu Dhabi cash in 2008, City have won every trophy going in English football, including the Premier League title twice. Success in Europe is proving much harder to come by.

In three seasons in the Champions League, City have twice failed to get out of their group and were eliminated in the first round of the knockout stage the other time.

So far this campaign, City have lost 1-0 to Bayern and were disappointing in a 1-1 home draw with Roma that left the English champions facing an uphill struggle in Group ‘E’.

“We have two games against CSKA Moscow [and] we need win to win both of them,” Pellegrini said. “The best way is to treat every game as a final, try to win it and then win the next final.”

The match will be played in front of no fans as punishment for CSKA for racist incidents by their supporters.

When the two clubs met in the group stage last year, CSKA’s fans racially abused City’s Yaya Toure and had one of their stands closed, but following continued trouble this will be their second successive European game without fans after their opening 1-0 defeat by Bayern last month.

Roma host Bayern in the other match in the group, with their striker and captain Totti enjoying a new lease of life and the match at the Stadio Olimpico has the makings of being the standout fixture on Tuesday.

Totti became the oldest scorer in the Champions League’s 22-year history in the last round of fixtures, when he netted the equaliser against City three days after his 38th birthday and has been a fundamental part of Roma’s resurgence under French coach Rudi Garcia.

Totti also scored the winner when Roma beat Bayern 3-2 almost exactly four years ago.

But Bayern, unbeaten in 11 games in all competitions, have kept eight successive clean sheets and have not conceded a goal since the 1-1 draw against Schalke 04 on August 30, a total of 748 minutes.

Barcelona’s Javier Mascherano believes that Tuesday’s visit of Ajax will not only help get their Group ‘F’ campaign back on track, after losing 3-2 to Paris St Germain three weeks ago, but also prepare them for the Clasico against eternal rivals Real Madrid on Saturday.

Barca beat a resolute Eibar 3-0 on Saturday with Lionel Messi taking his Liga tally to 250 goals and Mascherano says it is important Barca keep winning and do not look back to the past after they beat Ajax 4-0 at the Nou Camp in last season’s group stage.

PSG’s win over Barca gave the French champions some breathing space atop Group ‘F and they might need it, given their injury problems.

Ahead of the trip to play Apoel Nicosia in Cyprus on Tuesday, PSG coach Laurent Blanc could be without his entire back four of Thiago Silva, David Luiz, Marquinhos and Lucas Digne.

Tuesday fixtures (All times 1845 GMT unless stated):

Group E:

CSKA Moscow v Manchester City (1600); AS Roma v Bayern Munich.

Group F:

APOEL Nicosia v Paris St Germain; Barcelona v Ajax Amsterdam

Group G:

Chelsea v Maribor; Schalke 04 v Sporting.

Group H:

BATE Borisov v Shakhtar Donetsk; Porto v Athletic Club.

Published in Dawn, October 21st , 2014