Man City versus RB Leipzig into the second leg of their round of 16 clash, following their 1-1 draw last month.
Manchester City are unbeaten across their 23 home matches in the competition, winning 21 of them, and it sounds like a recipe for disaster. But City have won just one of their last four matches (D2 L1) against German opponents in the competition, having won nine consecutively previously. And the first leg only added to those recent woes. Manchester City this year has conceded more goals at home than away. And it has been seen how against fast and talented teams on the counter they receive a lot of damage.
The Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola will be grateful to have no fitness worries at all coming into this match owing to a fully injury-free squad ready to go.
In our view, The Citizens look set to make use of the 3-2-4-1 formation for this game and select Ederson Moraes, Kyle Walker, Manuel Akanji, Ruben Dias, Rodri, Bernardo Silva, Riyad Mahrez, Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland.
Leipzig had a convincing 3-0 victory against Gladbach at home on the weekend. In that game, RB Leipzig had 66% possession and 14 shots at goal with 9 of them on target. For RB Leipzig, goals were scored by Timo Werner (58'), Emil Forsberg (71') and Joško Gvardiol (80'). For their opponents, Borussia Mönchengladbach got 7 shots at goal with 3 on target. In as many as 5 out of the previous 6 games involving RB Leipzig, at least three goals have been struck.
RB Leipzig manager Marco Rose has some current player fitness concerns. Xaver Schlager (Syndesmotic ligament tear), Timo Schlieck (Meniscal Injury), Abdou Diallo (Knee Problems), Péter Gulácsi (Cruciate Ligament Rupture) and Christopher Nkunku (Torn Muscle Fibre) miss out here.
We’re of the thinking that Leipzig could decide to elect for a 4-2-3-1 lineup by sending out Janis Blaswich, Benjamin Henrichs, Willi Orban, Josko Gvardiol, David Raum, Amadou Haidara, Kevin Kampl, Dominik Szoboszlai, Emil Forsberg, Timo Werner and Andre Silva.
The Bookmakers give Pep Guardiola's team a very favorite and surely it is, but the German team is not exactly a minor rival.
It must be remembered that these 2 teams have met 3 times with goals scored by both teams in all of them, and the last precedent was in 2021, where the game ended 6-3 for City, where Nkunku scored a Hat-trick. This time he won't play. Despite these, I still think both teams will score.
Best Tip for Manchester City - RB Leipzig in the UEFA Champions League in my opinion is Both teams to score.
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