CSKA Moscow midfielder Pontus Wernbloom has rubbed salt into Manchester City's wounds, saying it was easy to formulate a gameplan against them.
Midfielder Wernbloom, who played in the Russian champions' 2-1 victory at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday, said Manuel Pellegrini's tactics were predictable and left City vulnerable to the counterattack.
He believed centre-backs Vincent Kompany and Martin Demichelis were left exposed as striker Seydou Doumbia scored both goals to take his tally to five goals in three games against City.
"We knew that they were going to come against us with big numbers and we know that they are vulnerable to counterattacks," Wernbloom told uefa.com.
"We've played them four times now in two years and we know they're going to give us space because, like I said before, they come forward in big numbers -- almost eight men who are staying with two central defenders.
"We knew that Doumbia is faster than them and if we just got the first pass away from them when they pressed us, we could counter them. We managed to do that, especially in the first half."
While Wernbloom outlined what he believed were the reasons for CSKA's superiority, City were left struggling to explain it.
"I don't know why, but CSKA were better than us and they deserved to win," forward Stevan Jovetic said. "It wasn't good. We didn't play well. We lost 2-1 and could have lost by more.
City have only taken two points from their four Champions League games in 2014 and are yet to win in Europe, but Jovetic insisted they could still qualify for the last 16.
He added: "We have Bayern Munich at home and then Roma away. We are a big team and we believe if we win two games we will go [through]."