RB Leipzig vs Manchester City - prediction, team news, lineups

Former Manchester City defender Martin Demichelis volition pb his RB Leipzig broadside into Wednesday night’s Champions League clash with the Citizens astatine the Red Bull Arena.

The 2 teams butt heads for the archetypal clip since November 2023 erstwhile City came from 2 goals down astatine fractional clip to triumph 3-2 successful a thrilling group-stage contention astatine the Etihad Stadium.

Match preview

Just 3 days aft edging past Brighton & Hove Albion connected penalties successful the EFL Cup 4th round, Man City delivered a amazingly toothless show against the aforesaid hostile past Saturday arsenic they fell to a constrictive 1-0 location decision successful the Premier League.

For the 3rd clip this season, Enzo Maresca’s broadside conceded wrong the opening 15 minutes, with Yasin Ayari’s extremity capable to condemn the Citizens to back-to-back Premier League losses arsenic good arsenic surrender apical spot to champions Arsenal.

City volition beryllium hopeless to instrumentality to winning ways successful their adjacent top-flight fixture astatine Nottingham Forest anterior to November’s planetary break, but they indispensable archetypal displacement their attraction to the Champions League wherever they person accumulated six points from their opening 3 League Phase fixtures.

Sitting 10th successful the 36-team standings, the Sky Blues suffered a 4-2 location decision to holders Paris Saint-Germain successful betwixt victories against Porto (2-0) and AEK Athens (5-1), beating the second with a much-changed broadside a fortnight ago.

Man City person travel retired connected apical successful lone 8 of their past 20 Champions League matches (D2 L10), but they caput to Germany having won 4 of their erstwhile six meetings with Leipzig (D1 L1) portion they person besides prevailed successful 21 of their 32 UCL encounters against German absorption (D5 L6).

After a play without European competition, RB Leipzig are backmost successful the Champions League this word and person picked up conscionable 3 points from their archetypal 3 matches, leaving them down successful 29th spot successful the 36-team League Phase table.

Die Roten Bullen edged to a slender 1-0 location triumph implicit Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven connected matchday two, courtesy of a precocious extremity from Brajan Gruda, but this effect took spot successful betwixt dense 4-1 distant defeats to some Como and Real Madrid.

Appointed caput manager successful June, Martin Demichelis has won 8 and mislaid 5 of his 13 matches successful complaint of Leipzig successful each competitions; they bushed Schalke 04 by a 2-0 scoreline past Saturday to ascent up to 4th successful the Bundesliga standings, conscionable 3 points down unbeaten leaders Bayern Munich.

Demichelis made 15 appearances for Wednesday’s opponents Man City successful the Champions League betwixt 2013-14 and 2015-16, with the erstwhile Argentine defender scoring erstwhile successful a 2-1 triumph distant against Borussia Monchengladbach successful September 2015.

The 45-year-old is present aiming to steer his Leipzig broadside to their 4th consecutive triumph successful each competitions and their archetypal implicit Man City since they celebrated a 2-1 location triumph successful the 2021-22 radical stage. However, Die Roten Bullen person mislaid their past 5 UEFA games against English opposition.

RB Leipzig Champions League form:

RB Leipzig signifier (all competitions):

Manchester City Champions League form:

Manchester City signifier (all competitions):

Team News

RB Leipzig duo Assan Ouedraogo (shoulder) and Marc Guiu (muscle) stay sidelined with injuries, portion erstwhile Burnley defender Maxime Esteve is doubtful with a sound that forced him to miss past weekend’s triumph implicit Schalke.

Christopher Nkunku watched connected arsenic an unused substitute past clip retired and it remains to beryllium seen whether helium volition beryllium acceptable to commencement connected Wednesday; the Frenchman is 1 of lone 5 UCL players to people a hat-trick and decorativeness connected the losing team, with his memorable treble coming successful a 6-3 decision astatine Man City successful 2021-22.

Antonio Nusa, who has scored a team-high 5 goals this season, could commencement connected the near broadside of beforehand 3 adjacent to Gruda and Romulo Cardoso, portion Christoph Baumgartner whitethorn beryllium acceptable to commencement successful centre-midfield astatine the disbursal of Rocco Reitz.

As for Man City, their lone wounded interest is with attacker Antoine Semenyo, who volition apt people a instrumentality from a genu wounded successful mid-December.

Rayan Cherki and Phil Foden are 2 beardown contenders to gain a recall, the second of whom people a hat-trick successful City’s convincing triumph implicit AEK Athens. At slightest 1 of Ayyoub Bouaddi, Enzo Fernandez oregon Elliot Anderson could truthful marque way.

Marc Guehi is pushing to commencement astatine centre-back alongside either Abdukodir Khusanov oregon Ruben Dias, portion Josko Gvardiol – who scored for Leipzig against Man City successful the archetypal limb of a last-16 necktie successful the 2022-23 Champions League – could beryllium replaced astatine left-back by Nico O'Reilly.

Erling Haaland has scored much goals against Leipzig (12 goals, 8 games) than against immoderate different hostile successful his career, including a UCL record-equalling 5 strikes successful City's 7-0 triumph successful the 2nd limb of the last-16 necktie successful 2022-23. Few would beryllium amazed to spot the prolific Norwegian commencement again connected Wednesday.

RB Leipzig imaginable starting lineup:

Vandevoordt; Baku, Orban, Lukeba, Raum; Banzuzi, El Aynaoui, Baumgartner; Gruda, Romulo, Nusa

Manchester City imaginable starting lineup:

Donnarumma; Nunes, Dias, Guehi, O'Reilly; Anderson, Fernandez; Foden, Cherki, Doku; Haaland

We say: RB Leipzig 2-4 Manchester City

The erstwhile six meetings betwixt Leipzig and Man City person produced 30 goals – an mean of 5 per crippled – truthful an entertaining, end-to-end brushwood tin beryllium expected connected Wednesday.

The Citizens person conceded 12 goals successful their past six matches and proceed to look susceptible astatine the back, providing Leipzig with plentifulness of optimism. However, we are backing Maresca’s men to rediscover their objective interaction and outscore their German counterparts successful a six-goals thriller.

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