The route to the last 16: RBL and City

RB Leipzig vs. Manchester City

The tension is building! Leipzig are set to welcome Manchester City to the Red Bull Arena on Wednesday evening for a blockbuster clash in the last 16 of the Champions League.

Although both sides ultimately managed to comfortably get through to the round of 16, their fortunes differed at the start of the group stage. Leipzig struggled at the start of this year’s Champions League, whereas Pep Guardiola’s City strolled through Group G. RBL eventually stormed into the next round with four wins from their last four group games after losing their first two.

Lots has happened since the group stage and both sides are in different places to where they were four months ago. This will make for a fascinating encounter and Leipzig will know that on a good day, Manchester City are beatable!

RB Leipzig’s Group Stage: (Group F: 2nd place, 13:9 goals, 12 points)

Leipzig were drawn into Group F along with defending champions Real Madrid, Celtic and Shakhtar Donetsk.

Leipzig’s first two games didn’t quite go to plan. They suffered a 4-1 loss at home against Shakhtar Donetsk and following this defeat, Marco Rose replaced Domenico Tedesco as head coach. RBL then travelled to the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu and despite a spirited display, they fell to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of the defending champions thanks to two late goals.

Leipzig then got their first win of their European campaign at the third attempt. Christopher Nkunku and André Silva (2) got on the scoresheet as Rose’s side beat Scottish champions Celtic 3-1.

Memorable evening in October

Timo WernerandEmil Forsberg scored in the reverse fixture in Glasgow to give Leipzig a 2-0 win. This put RBL on six points and got them right back into the race for knockout qualification.

The defending champions were in town for the fifth game on 25th October 2022 and the fans were treated to a highly memorable evening. Joško Gvardiol, Christo Nkunku and Timo Wernergot on the scoresheet as Leipzig edged Real Madrid in a five goal thriller (3-2).

Rose’s side then travelled to Donetsk knowing they needed a point to qualify for the last 16. A potentially nervy evening turned into rout as RBL raced to a 4-0 win thanks to goals from Nkunku, Silva, Szoboszlai.

Manchester City’s Group Stage (Group G: 1st place, 14:2 goals, 14 points)

Guardiola’s City started their campaign as clear favourites for qualification. They were drawn into Group G along with Borussia Dortmund, Sevilla and FC Copenhagen.

The Blues got off to a blistering start with a 4-0 win in Sevilla thanks to goals from Haaland (2), Foden and Dias. They then scored twice late on in a 2-1 win over Dortmund at the Etihad and thumped FC Copenhagen 5-0 on matchday 3.

After picking up 9 points from their first 3 games, City had the luxury of being able to take their foot off the pedal for the rest of the group stage. They settled for two goalless draws in their reverse fixtures against Copenhagen and Dortmund but they finished their group stage in style with a 3-1 win over Sevilla. Erling Haaland finished as City’s top scorer with five goals.