MOSCOW, November 4 (RIA Novosti) - CSKA Moscow fought their way to the verge of a memorable victory at Old Trafford on Tuesday night before a deflected goal in injury time gave Manchester United a 3-3 draw.
With CSKA leading 3-1 with less than 10 minutes to go, the home side's pressure told and two valuable points slipped from the Muscovites' grasp. With Wolfsburg winning 3-0 in Turkey, CSKA will most likely have to beat the German champions in Moscow and Besiktas in Istanbul to reach the knockout stages.
New trainer Leonid Slutsky put out a defensive team, starting the game with just three genuinely attacking players, but Alan Dzagoev, Milos Krasic and Tomas Necid were still able to cause problems for a United defense missing both first-choice center backs.
The Muscovites, bereft of ideas in the game in Moscow two weeks ago but dynamic here, drew first blood in the 24th minute, when Necid chested the ball down to Dzagoev, and the 19-year-old surged towards the penalty area, showed some quick feet to get beyond Jonny Evans and lash a left-foot shot past Edwin van der Sar.
The English champions side struck back almost immediately, summer signing Michael Owen adjudged to have just stayed onside when Antonio Valencia's cross was turned into the area by Nani in the 29th minute, the former Liverpool star taking a touch and shooting home across Igor Akinfeyev.
The army side were not fazed, and Krasic restored their lead two minutes later, timing his run perfectly to take Necid's pass and keep his balance to go past United's Dutch keeper and score into the empty net.
CSKA played out the half with few alarms and doubled their lead two minutes after the break when Vasily Berezutsky lost his marker to steal in at the far post and head Dzagoev's deep free kick in for the visitors' third goal.
The Russians then had some help from the officials when Darren Fletcher was given a yellow card for diving as he turned the goalscorer's twin, Alexei Berezutsky, in the area and went down looking for a penalty. Fortunately for CSKA, the Portuguese referee did not see any contact.
Akinfeyev, reportedly a transfer target for United as they struggle to replace the 39-year-old van der Sar, made a sharp stop from Paul Scholes' free kick and blocked the follow up from Patrice Evra.
The keeper was again called on to make a double stop in the 79th minute, keeping out Owen's header and substitute Wayne Rooney's shot as CSKA sat back in defense of their lead, Slutsky having signaled his intentions with 20 minutes to go by taking off Dzagoev, having scored his third goal in four Champions League games.
A couple of minutes later, Federico Macheda's header came back of the post having beaten Akinfeyev's dive, but the Russian keeper was again equal to Rooney's fierce follow-up drive and the army side's two-goal cushion was preserved.
Under almost constant pressure, Akinfeyev kept out two more strikes, but an unmarked Scholes headed in a right-wing free kick from six yards to bring last season's losing finalists to within one with six minutes of the 90 remaining.
But with one of four minutes of injury time gone, the Muscovites' luck failed, with Valencia's weary shot heading wide before taking a deflection off Shchennikov's head and dribbling past a stranded Akinfeyev.
