The hosts made a positive start to the match, with Seydou Doumbia and Ahmed Musa looking dangerous with their electric pace and dribbling ability, but no clear-cut chances were created and Madrid managed to start to impose them on the game. The Moscow giant found their scoring boots from an instrumental pass from the Liberian striker.

The ascendancy of the visitors stalled slightly due to an injury to Karim Benzema a quarter of an hour in to play. The Frenchman went down innocuously and had to be withdrawn due a problem with his groin.

Mourinho's men had a great chance to take the lead after 17 minutes but were denied by a terrific double save from Sergey Chepchugov.

Higuain latched on to a loose ball just outside the box and lashed a left-footed shot at goal that was palmed away by the CSKA goalkeeper, who got up instantly to tip Sami Khedira's rebound over the bar.

The breakthrough did eventually come for Real Madrid, through Portuguese pair Ronaldo and Fabio Coentrao.

The left back found himself in an advanced position down the left wing and whipped a cross to the back post which proved too much to handle for Zoran Tosic, who awkwardly headed the ball into the path of Ronaldo. The Madrid talisman then showed great composure to drill a left-footed half-volley at goal, which squeezed past Chepchugov.

The second half went through with the Real Madrid defense looking relatively comfortable, as the hosts struggled to break through a solid back-line.

The Spanish outfit had an excellent opportunity to double their lead in the 75th minute but another good save from Chepchugov kept his side in the match. Ronaldo broke the CSKA offside trap and ran through on goal attempting to take the ball around the goalkeeper, who remained big to make an important save.

Ronaldo should have doubled his tally seven minutes from time when he found himself with plenty of space on the edge of the box but dragged his shot wide of the left-hand post.

The win looked to be in the bag for Real Madrid, but CSKA had other ideas. In the last minute of injury time, Alexey Berezutskiy got on the end of a deep cross to head the ball back into the danger area of the Madrid box, and Wernbloom was there to smash home from seven yards.
This leaves the tie between CSKA Moscow and Real Madrid perfectly poised for the second leg two weeks from now at Santiago Bernabeu, but the hosts will certainly be buoyed by the manner of their equalizer.