Key occasions
47 min: A reasonably subdued environment now on the Etihad. Everyone is aware of that is over. Like any of the house followers are complaining.
Leipzig get the second half underway. No modifications.
Half-time postbag. “Chances are they’d have lost anyway, but that VAR decision has likely cost Leipzig the tie. If that’s a penalty, I’m Erling Haaland. And Jim Goodwin is Pep Guardiola” – Simon McMahon
“Clear foul and clear yellow for Ederson. Outrageously poor call. And I say this as an Arsenal fan hoping City goes all the way to the final in the CL, foregoing the league in the process!” – Ben Bernards
“Why did Henrichs get booked for the handball? Yes. It was a handball/penalty. But his back was turned to Rodri and the ball. Rodri saw the arm out and headed the ball onto it. Since Henrichs had no knowledge of where the ball was and Rodri was looking for a penalty instead of trying to pick a pass, it seems insanely harsh for him to get carded” – Eagle Brosi
“Can there be a new rule that VAR can’t give a penalty if no one is appealing for one?” – Crispin Leyser
HALF TIME: Manchester City 3-0 RB Leipzig (agg 3-1)
Haaland generously factors to Dias, to recommend the place the plaudits ought to be going. But it’s his objective. Yet one other hat-trick! What a participant. Unless one thing monumentally odd happens within the subsequent hour, Manchester City are within the quarter-finals of the Champions League!
GOAL! Manchester City 3-0 RB Leipzig (Haaland 45+2); agg 3-1
De Bruyne wins a nook down the left. Grealish takes and hits it lengthy. Dias rises on the far put up and crops a header onto the put up. The ball bobbles alongside the road. Haidara tries to hook clear however solely manages to knock the ball onto Haaland’s shin, and it whistles in from a few yards!
45 min: There can be two added first-half minutes.
44 min: Szoboszlai slips Werner into house down the left. The flag goes up for offside. The Hungarian worldwide has most likely been Leipzig’s greatest participant throughout this primary half.
42 min: Silva comes dancing in from the correct, previous three challenges. He’s unable to trip a fourth. Another objective now would certainly end off Leipzig earlier than the break.
40 min: A interval of relative calm.
38 min: De Bruyne rolls a free kick down the correct to launch Gundogan into the field. Easy as that! Gundogan’s slapshot is parried, and in some way evades Haaland within the center. He’s after that hat-trick! Getting ever nearer.
37 min: That was a giant let off for City. A really unusual, jittery show by each groups right here.
35 min: Rodri, going through his personal objective, underhits a backpass and lets Laimer in down the correct. Laimer rolls immediately throughout for Werner, who fresh-airs a swipe in making an attempt to poke house from eight yards. City so near gifting a objective and a lifeline to Leipzig!
34 min: … Leipzig counter. Szoboszlai loops a move down the inside-left channel to chase. Laimer hares after it. Ederson, rashly racing out of his field, clatters into Laimer and appears to have cleaned him out. But the referee provides the foul to City. Werner is booked for putting his arms on the referee throughout his grievance.
33 min: De Bruyne delivers it excessive. Blaswich punches clear, albeit with little or no conviction. Corner on the correct, from which …
32 min: Leipzig are correctly rattled, and now Orban needlessly skittles Grealish close to the left-hand nook flag. De Bruyne to swing in a free kick from a harmful place.
31 min: Haaland is within the temper to finish a kind of hat-tricks he so usually notches. He meets a ball rolled down the inside-left channel with a swivel and a vicious drive. Blaswich does nicely to parry at his close to put up.
30 min: Rain in Manchester isn’t information. Snow is, although. A reasonably heavy bathe.
28 min: … and breathe. Probably value noting that Leipzig had been extraordinarily sad with the penalty determination, Rodri’s header scraping the arm of Henrichs, who was going through the opposite means at shut proximity. There’s additionally a suggestion that Haaland fouled, quite than aggressively pressed, Blaswich throughout the build-up to the second. But right here we’re!
26 min: So there have been 78 of your real-time seconds between these targets. And they’d been coming. City may fairly simply be 4 or 5 up already. Their press has performed an actual quantity on Leipzig, with Blaswich harried right into a clearance that began the mix resulting in the second objective. A nightmare couple of minutes for the Leipzig keeper.
GOAL! Manchester City 2-0 RB Leipzig (Haaland 24); agg 3-1
Nineteen seconds after kick off, Haaland scores once more! First he hunts down Blaswich, who clears simply in time. Akanji volleys again down the center. Haaland cushions a header all the way down to De Bruyne, who opens his physique and from the sting of the field, cracks a screamer off the bar. The ball loops to Haaland, who heads it house with no fuss in any way. The Etihad lifts off for Mars!
GOAL! Manchester City 1-0 RB Leipzig (Haaland 22 pen); agg 2-1
Haaland forensically fires a low drive into the underside proper. Blaswich went the correct means, however such was the facility and precision of Haaland’s strike, he was by no means getting there. City lead!
Penalty to City!
21 min: But maintain on! VAR desires a have a look at a attainable penalty! One of these Rodri headers clanked Henrichs on his proper arm, which was nicely away from his physique. The referee goes over to the display screen, makes his determination, attracts a TV set within the air, and factors to the spot! Henrichs is booked, and Haaland will take.
19 min: … the nook results in a recreation of pinball within the Leipzig six-yard field. Rodri heads. Akanji swishes a shot. Rodri heads once more. The ball drops to Haaland, however he can’t get a shot away, with Raum toeing away on the last. What an escape!
18 min: Silva rolls down the correct for De Bruyne, who’s having an terrible lot of pleasure out on this wing. De Bruyne crosses deep from the touchline. Blaswich claims calmly, however then, in trying to play out from the again, shanks a easy move out of play for a nook. It’s almost an awfully costly mistake, too, as a result of …
17 min: Grealish dribbles down the left and slips Ake in on the overlap. Ake cuts again for De Bruyne, who has his again to objective and so cushions the ball into Grealish’s path. Grealish opens his physique and appears for the highest proper. The shot pings off Orban’s knee and out for a nook, from which nothing comes. But what a beautiful flowing transfer by the hosts there. It would have been a picture-book objective.
15 min: Dias performs a poor ball out from the again. It’s intercepted by Szoboszlai, who sends Raum into house down the left. Raum fizzes a low cross into the field. Ederson will get all the way down to smother. A greater cross there, and City, regardless of their glorious begin, would have been in a world of ache.
13 min: De Bruyne drives with nice dedication alongside the correct touchline. He’s obtained hardly any room to play with, beneath intense defensive stress, however nonetheless manages to dig out a cross in direction of the far stick. Blaswich claims confidently. City are coming at Leipzig from all angles.
11 min: Ake sails an excellent lengthy move down the inside-left channel to launch Haaland. The massive man will get into the field first, aided by somewhat shove within the again from Gvardiol, and tries to poke first time previous the out-rushing keeper. Blaswich manages to hang around a leg to dam and the ball’s hoofed clear by Orban. Even nearer! City may feasibly be a few targets up already.
9 min: City stroke it across the center within the dominant fashion. Then immediately Grealish picks up the tempo down the left and almost executes a defence-splitting one-two with Gundogan. Not fairly, however once more, City go very near getting issues very proper.
7 min: From the ensuing throw, Grealish and Haaland mix down the left. The ball’s rolled again to Ake, who curls infield. His cross sails behind Haaland, however not by a lot. City look within the temper to carve out just a few probabilities tonight.
6 min: Orban blasts what ought to have been a easy move out of play, beneath stress from the City press. Anything Leipzig can do, City can just do as nicely, if not higher.
4 min: Silva wins the primary nook of the night down the correct. Leipzig take care of it simply sufficient, regardless of Akanji profitable a header on the far put up.
3 min: On the touchline, Pep is already frantically making tweaks. Whatever he’s saying almost pays prompt dividend, as Silva slips De Bruyne into house down the correct. De Bruyne whips to the far put up, the place Gundogan leans again and sidefoots over from 12 yards. It was an opportunity. Not a simple one, however an opportunity. It would have been one heck of a objective.
2 min: Leipzig come out urgent exhausting, a lot as Marco Rose promised. Kampl seems for Werner with a wedged move down the center however his team-mate is aware of he’s miles offside and doesn’t even trouble chasing it.
Manchester City v RB Leipzig (agg: 1-1)
City get the ball rolling. Blue Moon ringing across the stadium. A correct European environment beneath the lights!
A laser present, the coda of Hey Jude, the performative booing of Uefa’s model of Zadok the Priest, and out come the groups! Manchester City put on their sky blue shirts, Leipzig third-choice black and pink. Last up the tunnel, Pep and Marco, arm in arm, the perfect of pals. We’ll be off in a minute!
Pre-match postbag. “I think I’d have an easier time winning the Powerball than correctly predicting one of Pep’s lineups” – Blake Mitchell
“Marco Rose’s comments don’t really lead me to believe that Leipzig are coming out with the intention of getting a stomp on, nor are setting up for thrilling heroics in this tie. It seems that they’re quite happy to let the game flow at City’s pace, and bend like a willow, as Taylor Swift once sang about, but probably not with artistic inspiration from Big Cup footy” – Bill Preston
“Should be an interesting second leg in the liquid gold derby. The ooze of crude petroleum will likely prove too much for the sugary fizz of energy drink but hey, it’s football and anything can happen. I’ll join Pep Guardiola in nervously opening a plastic bottle of drinking water, taking a distracted pull and screwing the cap back on with excessive force” – Peter Oh
Pep Guardiola speaks to BT. “We will give defenders help in the build-up … everyone is available and ready … all four [defenders] can play in different shapes so we are set up for that … they start with a lot of players inside … maybe they’ll change their shape but we’ll see after five minutes.”
Leipzig coach Marco Rose speaks to BT. “We have to defend a lot of situations but we want to attack too … the midfield is of course an important part of the game … in Leipzig we saw how it was not working and how it could work … we were more active and pressed them … we made them problems … we have to try to gain possession … it is not easy but if you just run against the ball it’s getting difficult … Erling is Erling and he will be trying to score today against me and my team … we have no special plan against him but we have to do everything on the highest possible level because he is really dangerous … we are really confident, that’s why we come here … we played a good first leg and we can be confident … the winner goes to the next stage … we want to play a good game and see what we get.”
Manchester City make two modifications to the XI named to start out the primary leg in Leipzig. John Stones and Kevin De Bruyne are available for Kyle Walker and Riyad Mahrez, who each drop to the bench.
Leipzig make 4 modifications to their beginning XI from the primary leg. Amadou Haidara, David Raum, Benjamin Henrichs and Kevin Kampl are available for Lukas Klostermann,André Silva and Marcel Halstenberg, who drop to the bench, and the injured Xaver Schlager. Christopher Nkunku, who got here on as a sub within the first leg, additionally misses out via harm.
The groups
Manchester City: Ederson, Stones, Akanji, Dias, Ake, Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Gundogan, Bernardo, Grealish, Haaland.
Subs: Ortega, Carson, Walker, Phillips, Laporte, Álvarez, Gómez, Mahrez, Perrone, Foden, Palmer, Lewis.
RB Leipzig: Blaswich, Henrichs, Orbán, Gvardiol, Raum, Laimer, Haidara, Szoboszlai, Kampl, Forsberg, Werner.
Subs: Nyland, Nickisch, Simakan, Olmo, Poulsen, Klostermann, Silva, Halstenberg, Ba.
Referee: Slavko Vinčić (Slovenia).
Preamble
Three weeks in the past this occurred …
… however 18 months in the past this occurred …
… so Manchester City ought to be quietly assured of progressing to the quarter-finals tonight. They’ll should be higher than they had been within the second half in Germany, although. Kick off on the Etihad is 8pm GMT. It’s on!
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