RB Leipzig vs Manchester City Preview

Manchester City will resume their UEFA Champions League title defence this Wednesday when they travel to Germany to face RB Leipzig.

Leipzig are the favourites to finish second in Group G ahead of Young Boys and Crvena Zvezda, so this game against City represents a battle of the top two sides in the group–a battle which the hosts will be keen to win to avenge their 7-0 defeat by Pep Guardiola’s side in this competition last season.

Marco Rose has reinvented his side since that unfortunate loss at the Etihad. Ahead of this game, the hosts have shown themselves to be a serious force this season, winning the German Supercup at the expense of Bayern Munich at the start of the season. They have also remained unbeaten in their last seven matches (W6, D1), including a 2-2 draw with Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga on Saturday.

Although the Red Bulls have a seriously impressive record under Rose (W35, D6, L9), they have a terrible record against English opposition across their last six games (W1, D1, L4). Yet, they will be hopeful, given that this game is at home, where they are yet to lose to a Premier League side (W3, D1).

Meanwhile, Manchester City are travelling to Germany in broken shape after a shock 2-1 loss to Wolves in the Premier League at the weekend, which came after a 1-0 loss to Newcastle United.

Both losses came away from home, so their trip to Leipzig is a third away assignment in a week. A loss here is to be avoided as it would see City fall to a third successive loss for the first time since April 2018. Although they will be desperate to avoid such, the travelling supporters will certainly be wary of that fate given they’ve seen their side draw five UCL away games, with each of the last three ending 1-1.

However, City are notoriously strong against German opposition as since losing to Bayern in 2014, they’ve lost just one of 21 such matches (W16, D4) against Bundesliga teams.