Manchester City travel to Eastern Germany looking to take control of Group G in the 2023/24 UEFA Champions League ahead of Red Bull Leipzig.
RB Leipzig will meet Pep Guardiola’s Man City for the third season running in Europe’s premier cup competition as both sides look to progress into the knockout rounds. The German Cup winners were dealt a major blow by City in their heavy defeat during last season’s Round of 16 and will be keen on repeating their win at home from the 2021/22 group stage.
Leipzig began their domestic season with a sensational 3-0 win away at Bayern Munich in the German Super Cup which avenged their defeat in the same game last year. Nonetheless, the Bundesliga campaign started with a 3-2 defeat at Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen.
Their improvement has been notable since then as they blitzed VFB Stuttgart 5-1 in the second half of their first home game and built upon that with a 3-0 win against Union Berlin. That scoreline was repeated against Augsburg following the international window and they opened the Champions League campaign by beating Young Boys 3-1.
It’s a result that sees them level with City at the top of Group G on the same goals scored and goals conceded. In just their sixth season in the Champions League, Leipzig are fairly experienced but have already secured several big scalps on the way against the likes of Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United and the previously mentioned 2-1 win over City.
Marco Rose has improved the team since he took charge just over a year ago and they are very capable of maintaining a proud unbeaten record at home against Guardiola’s team. Indeed, they are also a very good attacking side having scored at least thrice for four consecutive games.
Man City will be left under no illusions as to the quality their opponents possess, yet, they know very few teams can match them on any given day.
The treble winners remain as ruthless as ever in attack and they are even more stingy this term after letting little, if any, get past them.
City opened their Premier League campaign with a 3-0 victory at Burnley led by their ex-captain Vincent Kompany and enjoyed low-scoring wins over Newcastle and Sheffield United, in between was a win against Sevilla on penalties in the UEFA Super Cup.
Fulham and West Ham were beaten on either side of the September break until City survived conceding an opening goal to beat Crvena Zvezda 3-1 at the start of their Champions League defense. Man City have started the campaign as they mean to go and find themselves top of the Premier League with a 100 percent record.
Very few teams in world football can go toe-to-toe with the Mancunians tactically, technically and in terms of quality in reserve, meaning they go into every single game knowing they should win.
They must get a result from this match to ensure they are in the driving seat of a group they are very much expected to win. And despite the tough challenge from Die Roten Bullen, Man City have two wins and a draw from their four previous UCL encounters.
Guardiola will be keen to get qualification from the group wrapped up as early as possible with his team challenging on up to seven fronts this season. Rotation is key but they must avoid a fight for qualification in the latter stages of the group campaign.
Match tickets
This match will take place on Wednesday 4 October, kicking off at the traditional 8 PM UK time slot for European matches. The match will be broadcast live on DAZN and Prime Video in Germany as well as on TNT Sports in the UK.
Tickets for the match have been on sale via each individual club’s website but it is certainly going to be a sell-out when the reigning Champions League winners come to town for a big European night in Leipzig. Hence, getting Leipzig vs. Manchester City tickets will be difficult given the occasion.
Supporters are unlikely to find any more tickets through official channels so they are advised to look for theirs on a ticket reselling site.
Team news
Willi Orban, Dani Olmo, El Chadaille Bitshiabu and Amadou Haidara are out injured for the Red Bulls and it is unlikely that we see any of them take on Man City.
Meanwhile, experienced campaigners such as Emil Forsberg and the pacy Timo Werner will be eyeing a starting spot against Guardiola’s side.
Zack Steffen and Kevin De Bruyne will be unavailable for a few months but John Stones and Mateo Kovacic could be recovered in time to feature for the Sky Blues while Bernardo Silva’s substitution against Red Star was for an apparent injury which may rule him out for Matchday 2.
Line-ups
PSG loanee Xavi Simons has taken the Bundesliga by storm as the attacking midfielder is Leipzig’s most potent player for goals and assists. He will look to positively influence his team in the hopes of getting a result against City.
Emil Forsberg is the club’s second-top goalscorer in this competition and should also be chosen from the start.
Leipzig: Blaswich; Henrichs, Simakan, Lukeba, Raum; Schlager, Kampl, Simons, Forsberg; Openda, Poulsen
Former Leipzig defender Josko Gvardiol should feature against the club he left this summer. The Croatian scored the equalizer when these two sides met at the Red Bull Arena last season but he will be tasked with stopping some of his former teammates.
Another new signing Matheus Nunes will also look to keep his place in City’s midfield given question marks over the availability of Kovacic.
Man City: Ederson; Walker, Dias, Akanji, Gvardiol; Rodri, Nunes; Foden, Alvarez, Doku; Haaland
Prediction
City are yet to concede more than once in a match so far this season and it is a tall order even for the free-scoring Leipzig to breach them twice. This makes it an occasion for small margins as the hosts will have to be near-perfect to come away with a good result.
Regardless of their attacking potential, City will simply be too much for the Germans to handle both from an attacking and defensive standpoint.
Leipzig 1-3 Man City
