The State of Play
With both teams having already secured their place in the knockout stages, there seems, on the face of it, little to play for. However, with the likes of Real Madrid and Bayern Munich also set to win their groups, there is definitely merit in coming top of Pool G and facing a second-placed team in the round of 16.
Defending champions City have won all four matches in the competition so far, including a 3-1 win in Germany in the return fixture, and need just a point to be guaranteed to finish top. Boss Pep Guardiola has enough strength in depth to feel confident of achieving that by rotating his squad given this game falls between a gruelling home draw with Liverpool and Premier League clashes with Tottenham and Aston Villa.
Leipzig will be relieved to have secured qualification at such an early stage. Marco Rose has done well to navigate his side through the Champions League successfully but he will be concerned at their recent form. Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Wolfsburg was their third loss in their last four away games and saw them slip to fifth in the Bundesliga.
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Team News
Guardiola is likely to make several changes to the side that drew 1-1 with Liverpool on Saturday lunchtime. John Stones is unlikely to be one of the inclusions, however, despite making a surprise return to the bench and the weekend.
Jack Grealish could return if he can shrug off an illness while Guardiola confirmed newly capped England international Rico Lewis will play. Expect the likes of Kalvin Phillips, Sergio Gomez and Oscar Bobb to all get starts, as well as former RB Leipzig defender Josko Gvardiol.
The visitors are without key trio Timo Werner, Dani Olmo and Willi Orban with El Chadaille Bitshiabu also unavailable. Rose could recall Emil Forsberg but will otherwise keep changes to a minimum.
Expected line-ups
Manchester City: Ederson; Lewis, Gvardiol, Akanji, Ake; Phillips, Silva; Grealish, Gomez, Bobb; Alvarez
RB Leipzig: Blaswich; Heinrichs, Raum, Simakan, Lukeba; Schlager, Haidara, Forsberg, Simons; Poulsen, Openda
What they said
Guardiola on the impact the fans can have tomorrow night
“The games last season, important games, against Arsenal for the Premier League, they [the fans] were there. We need that, in my humble opinion – to be successful we need our fans.
“Thank you so much, [because] without them [it is] not possible to be here. Together we are stronger. For them to be part of our game is much better and [when] we feel they are there, we play better.
“We have to do the first steps all the time. Tomorrow hopefully they can come and enjoy the game.”
Yussuf Poulsen following the defeat at Wolfsburg
“You reap what you sow in football and we lost. We weren’t decisive enough at important moments, but we still played pretty well on the whole. At the end of the day, it’s all about doing the little things right. Wolfsburg had two or three real chances and they took them.
“We’re confident that we can go to Manchester on Tuesday and win, but it’s going to be tough.“
Final prep ✅
Manchester 🔜#MCIRBL pic.twitter.com/1nk9OLMWLQ— RB Leipzig English (@RBLeipzig_EN) November 27, 2023
When and how to watch
Manchester City v RB Leipzig will be shown live on TNT Sports and on Discovery+ in the UK. The match kicks off at 8pm local time.
Prediction
Even with a heavily rotated team, City should have enough to see off Leipzig and this presents a good chance for some of their fringe players to impress. Rose’s men may not be on a great run but they do have a potent attack so there is likely to be goals.
