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This thrilling victory for Manchester City followed a familiar pattern this season: defensive errors and poor goalkeeping followed by Erling Haaland saving the day.
“How can you stop Haaland?” read the headline in the local Volkszeitung newspaper on the morning of this Champions League clash. The answer is that has been impossible for RB Leipzig when they have faced the Norwegian.
He has now scored 13 goals against them in nine matches, the most he has scored against a single team during his career. Enzo Maresca gave him the armband here and his winning goal masked more worries for the City head coach in his backline.
After being gifted the lead through Castello Lukeba’s own goal, Gianluigi Donnarumma was exposed at his near post by Ridle Baku’s cheeky finish when the City goalkeeper was positioned for a cross.
Maresca was not happy either with Antonio Nusa finding a second equaliser for Leipzig after Enzo Fernández had headed City back in front.
Haaland had to wait patiently for his chance. He had only three touches of the ball in the first half but slid in for the winner when Elliot Anderson broke forward.
This was a victory to bounce back from losing in the Premier League at the weekend, but the question will be how can City mount a title challenge with such a brittle defence? Champions League winners do not leave themselves open at the back like this, and City have now gone seven without a clean sheet.
Full report to follow...
It’s the most I’ve scored against one club [13] but I’ve played so many times against them. Leipzig are a good team. [Anderson] has been amazing, an amazing start to his City career. That’s what you expect to be honest. You have to come straight in and perform, It’s not easy. You need time to adapt, time to get to know your new team-mates and coach, which is not easy even for us, and he’s been very impressive. Respect!
Thirteen touches I had today, you say? It’s not the most but what is important is that I help the team to win and I managed to do that today. So I am super happy.
In the end we need to step up a little bit. When we went 1-0 up we should have pushed for the second more and then hopefully the third. That’s what we have to work at. Keep the ball, when to keep it when to go. Working together both offensively and defensively but that’s the good part there’s always a chance to get better. There’s always a new game and our next chance will be in three days.
You can look at [keeping focused to make the right runs despite the lack of touches] in different ways – either 100 minutes is a long time to stay concentrated or 100 minutes is not that long to stay concentrated. I look at it like the second option.
Teams in those positions after eight matches have a bye into the Round of 16:
City win the first header from the Leipzig free-kick and the ref blows his whistle for full time.
Enjoyable game, very even until Nusa went off but City, like Arsenal, can bring on their billionaire bomb squad off the bench to turn the screw. And they did so here. City’s defence and goalkeeper are still major worries.
Cherki wastes an opportunity to pass to an unmarked Haaland in the box by trying and failing to force his shot though Orban’s legs. Khusanov has to make a foul to stop a Leipzig break.
Doku blazes a shot over to end a City break after Donnarumma had caught a cross following the free-kick.
Leipzig have a free-kick on the left after a daft Allan foul on Banzuzi. Three more minutes to come.
Terrific save from Vandevooort low to his left, almost clawing it back from behind him with a Stretch Armstrong left arm after Doku’s cross kicked up and struck Haaland’s leg.
Gruda rolls the ball into an empty net after deceiving Donnarumma but both knew he was a mile offside when Gomis’s pass found him.
Haaland hits the post with a right-foot shot from an offside position after either jumping the gun or, more likely, Cherki delaying the pass too long.
Now Cherki thunders a left-foot shot into the crossbar after a good work from Kovacic.
Bouaddi → Anderson Kovacic → Fernandez Allan → Ndiaye
Donnarumma is evidently suffering a crisis of confidence. After an O’Reilly foul on the right. Raum bends a cross/shot towards the back post. Donnarumma backpedals about as quickly as Peter Shilton used to do, caught in no man’s land, and must be relieved to hear the ball thud into the crossbar.
Dias → Nunes.
Cherki’s shot from the right of the penalty area is turned behind by Vandevoort after the France playmaker pounced on a rebound from Fernández’s cross/shot.
Heinrichs → Nusa Seiwald → El Ayanoui Reitz → Baku.
City have to go all the way back to Donnarumma after Banzuzi heads Fernández’s inswinging corner back to him.
City corner on the left after O’Reilly’s underlapping run catches Leipzig on the back foot.
Well, that was a lively 10 minutes. Ndiaye has gone to the right and Doku is on the left now. The left winger plays a one-two with Cherki, the No 10 giving the ball back with a backheel, then crosses to the back post. Fernández can only reach it at the apex of his jump with the crown of his head and Ndiaye can’t stop it going out for a goalkick.
Doku → Foden Gomis → Romulo.
Enzo, not for the first time, goes down clutching his face when brushed by an opponent’s hand. The crowd whistles him as he does his dying fly act.
City let Baku pile down the right again and get a shot off from inside the box. Donnarumma stoops to catch it and spills it but manages to dive forward to scoop it away before Romulo could pounce, taking the player as well as the ball. Leipzig want a penalty but the keeper got enough of the ball.
Golden chance for Haaland when Cherki’s pass ricochets off Banzuzi to the centre-forward by the penalty spot. He strikes it first time with his right foot but Vandervoort is equal to it, swooping low to his left to keep it out with a strong left wrist.
Haaland’s fourth touch is to head the corner out of the box but Leipzig move it back infield to Baumgartner who leathers a shot from 18 yards that Donnarumma soars to tip round the post.
TNT Sports tells us that Haaland had three touches in the first 45 minutes. Leipzig start at a fair lick by sending Nusa down the left and he cuts in on his right to try to score the kind of goal that used to be a Thierry Henry speciality, bent into the top right. It may have been creeping in but more likely not. Donnarumma claws it round the post for a corner playing the percentages.
Some bright moments for the home side who are overplaying in attack much as Arshavin-era Arsenal used to do. City have looked good on the break but have failed to exploit Haaland’s channel running and ability to ghost away from Orban and Lukeba with the right pass.
Leipzig trying to send a message to the fans with his half-time playlist: I Will Survive and Don’t Stop Believing so far.
Haaland is going to tear a strip off his team-mates at half-time. They keep ignoring his runs. It’s as if they think he’s a decoy.
Haaland’s first notable chance quickly follows the goal, a back-post header from O’Reilly’s left-wing cross but he could not get enough purchase on the ball.
Foden traps Banzuzi’s defensive header with his right to shift it on to his left then bends a shot that goes whistling past the left post.
Anderson snaps into the press and opens the door down the right for Ndiaye who can’t get away from Raum.
Baku is booked for scything down O’Reilly who had laid the ball off long before Baku dived in.
Gruda butchers a very good chance on the right of the City box after Fernandez and Cherki are caught upfield and leave Anderson minding the shop all alone. Baku, coming round Gruda, was screaming for the lay-up to shoot but Gruda took it on himself and scuffed it tamely wide.
Anderson is a foul magnet. Opponents keep catching and clipping him.
Baumgartner heeds the crowd’s advice and has a pop from 25 yards with a right-foot curling effort that doesn’t bend back in sufficiently. Donnarumma paid it the compliment of a full-length dive to his left but it was never on target.
Leipzig are guilty of overelaboration in and around the City box. Too many tricks and flicks, not enough shots and crosses. Haaland is giving his team-mates some jip for not reading his runs.
Cherki pings a pass out to Enzo on the right and he slips as he tries to cross, his momentum as he fell forcing the cross deeper than he had planned and it sails beyond a visibly frustrated Haaland who keeps making good runs but has yet to be found.
City are dicing with danger by letting Nusa run at them from positions on both wings and through the middle. They manage to stop him threading ir flicking passes through to Romulo twice in the space of 30 seconds but it would be less stressful to cut it off at source further away from their goal.
City can’t hang on to the ball in high areas, yielding possession too cheaply and Leipzig swarm forward down the right with City scrambling back. When the cut-back is played into the box, it is behind the first wave of Leipzig runners but galloping behind is Raum, the cavalry. He gets there and crashes a shot with his left that is blocked.
A replay of Donnarumma’s ‘save’ show that it was on target and the keeper could easily have squirted it through his hands into the goal. Small wonder he rotated his head as if auditioning for a part in the Exorcist to look back in relief.
Leipzig take the corner short and City push them back and try to start a counter that ends when Baumgartner takes Anderson out with a rash sliding tackle that upends the England midfielder.
Nusa, who has licence to roam, pops up on the right wing and cuts inside past Guéhi, dribbling across the 18-yard line before thumping a rising shot that Donnarumma puts his hands above his hands to catch but doesn’t cling on. He managed to do enough to slap it over the bar, though. I think it was always going to vault the crossbar. Corner for Leipzig.
Haaland, who hasn’t had a kick, closes the keeper Vandevoort down from his blindside and he flaps at his clearance, ballooning it straight tp Foden, 30 yards from goal. Banzuzi makes sure Foden doesn’t make them pay.
Leipzig break at pace with O’Reilly caught upfield, switching it to their left and running 50 yards towards the City box but Nunes makes an impressive recovery run to win the tackle.
Anderson almost picks up out O’Reilly who had made an underlapping run down the left as Ndiaye lured Baku out to the wing. But Orban stops O’Reilly spinning on to the pass.
Ndiaye rides his luck and two tackles before the ball just skips away form him as he was closing towards the 18-yard line but Leipzig botch the clearance and Foden feeds a lovely pass in from the right to Cherki who opens his body and wraps a left-foot shot the wrong side of the left post.
Cherki intercepts a pass meant for Nusa but goes backwards instead of looking for Foden down the right, killing the impetus of an unexpected interception.
Nusa stretches his legs down the left after a clumsy lay-off from Cherki and shifts the ball inside to meet Romulo’s run between Khusanov and Nunes but Nunes sticks with him and forces him deep, so close to the byline in fact that his attempt to square it goes straight to Donnarumma.
Khusanov, under pressure from Romulo, squeezes a pass that deflects off him and goes out for a City throw-in.
After a moment’s silence for Jesús de Miguel who was killed after being injured while playing for Tenerife earlier this week, Manchester City kick off, attacking from left to right. They are in black with yellow trim, the colours of the bee emblem of the city of Manchester. Leipzig are in white with red bits. City move the ball back to Donnarumma who instigates and attack up the left that the home side deals with easily and when they try again Baku heads Nunes’ long ball away.
City only have a small portion of the stadium for travelling support – but the boos for the Champions League anthem is heard loud and clear. There are a few fans dressed up as sheikhs too.
Ce sont les meilleures équipesEs sind die allerbesten MannschaftenThe main eventDie MeisterDie BestenLes grandes équipesThe champions
Not freezing here in Leipzig but temperatures are dropping. City are still out there warming up, with Haaland leading the shooting practice. Leipzig have headed inside.
We know each other very well and we’re almost like brothers. I know his philosophy and how he wants to play. Enzo is a winner and he’ll be looking to win trophies with Manchester City.
I had three fantastic years at Manchester City myself, but that was a long time ago,” he said. “Being a coach is a completely different job.
[Here] the players needed time to get to know me, and I needed time to get to know them but we’ve played well in our last three games.
We’ve become more solid and put in an excellent performance both on and off the ball at Schalke.
We’ll try to produce the same kind of display at home against a top-quality side.
Obviously I had the unfortunate red card against Man Utd but I think the break did me good. I came back really fresh and sharp.
I’ve been involved in a lot of goals lately and I’ve been really happy with my own performance.
Hopefully I can get back to that level. I think I’m starting to get back there now. Hopefully I keep growing and getting better.
It is one of those things [being dropped by Thomas Tuchel]. Football is full of ups and downs and it’s one of those things you can’t control.
You just have to keep trying your best on the field and keep putting in performances. Hopefully, one day, the call-up might come back.
Enzo Maresca has made four changes, Phil Foden has a chance to put himself in the frame for the England squad, which is announced at the end the week, after he missed out last month.
Erling Haaland, an ex-Red Bull player after his spell with their Salzburg team, is captain and leads the team out at Red Bull Arena.
Nkunku starts on the bench. Leipzig have been playing 4-5-1 since that 4-1 gubbing at the Bernabéu and it looks like Demichelis has stuck with it for City.
Maresca makes four changes, recalling Guéhi, O’Reilly, Cherki and Foden in place of Dias, Gvardiol, Bouaddi and Doku.
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Good evening and welcome to live coverage of the Champions League group stage match between RB Leipzig and Manchester City from Saxony. The hosts started the day in 27th place in the 36-team table after two defeats, both by four goals to one, in away games against Como and Real Madrid. City begin proceedings in 12th after victories over Porto and AEK sandwiching that rip-roaring 4-2 defeat by the champions PSG at the Etihad.
City, who seemed in rude health after seven successive wins at the start of the Premier League campaign despite the guilty verdicts in the Premier League’s case against them for financial cheating, have wobbled since then, losing their last two league games. Marc Guéhi and Gigi Donnarumma are both suffering bouts of poor form, other individual errors continue to plague them and, although they are creating hatfuls of chances, they have been thwarted by a combination of imprecise finishing and the excellence of Zion Suzuki and Bart Verbruggen.
For all their travails on the road – RB Leipzig have also lost at Werder Bremen, Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich – they have won all their home Bundesliga matches as well as a 1-0 victory over PSV in this competition. Their total of 22 league goals is second only to Bayern’s 27 and Antonio Nusa, a Norway team-mate of Erling Haaland, is in sparkling form flitting behind strikers Christopher Nkunku and Romulo. City, whose full-backs, if you can describe the centre-backs and midfielders who play either side of the centre-halves in that way, never look fit for purpose defensively and may well have their work cut out tonight if he drifts wide.
The Red Bull coaching principles, which have treated us to the dross football of Jesse Marsch, Matthias Jaissle and Ralph Hasenhüttl, all about the long pass, the central channel, counter-pressing and second balls, have a new proponent in Martín Demichelis, the forner City and Argentina defender who won the title in 2014 at the Etihad. Three years ago he led River Plate to the title in Argentina, the highlight of a coaching career also spent running Bayern’s U21s, Monterey and Mallorca.
These two have met six times in the last five years, City winning four, most notably the 7-0 thrashing at the Etihad in 2023’s Round of 16, the year they went on to win the Treble. Leipzig’s only victory came at home five years ago in the sixth, redundant group game when City and PSG had already clinched qualification for the knockout stages.
Antoine Semenyo is City’s only absentee; Leipzig will have to do without one-cap Germany midfielder Assan Ouédraogo and former Chelsea striker Marc Guiu.
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