Further boosting their confidence will be a four-game winning streak across all competitions since last meeting Leipzig, in which they amassed ten goals to one along the way. Guardiola said he was “delighted” with the 1-1 draw in the previous leg, and should therefore be bullish about clearing this obstacle, particularly considering his club are on a nine-game winning streak at home to German opponents in UEFA competition, which includes a 6-3 thrashing of Leipzig in the 2021/22 group stage.
Leipzig’s last entry into the UCL Round of 16 saw them eliminated at the hands of English opposition, one of two multiple-goal defeats they suffered on trips to England (5-0 and 2-0) in 2020/21. Not yet assured of their place in the next UCL, they steamrolled Mönchengladbach after half-time at the weekend (3-0) to get back into winning ways after a 2-1 loss away to Dortmund that was “hard to accept” for boss Marco Rose.
They have improved sharply under the management of Rose, closing out their group stage campaign with four consecutive victories, including wins ‘to nil’ at Shakhtar Donetsk and Celtic. The Germans were able to follow home leg draws with away wins both against Real Sociedad and Atalanta in the knockout stages of last season’s Europa League, but becoming the first side since Lyon in 2018/19 to conquer the Etihad in a UEFA game is an entirely different challenge.
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Players to watch: Phil Foden pressed his case for a start here by scoring before half-time in three of City’s four wins since not being selected for the previous leg. Emil Forsberg was not on the scoresheet that evening, but will fancy another opportunity after scoring in all three of Leipzig’s Bundesliga games since.
Hot streak: Each of Leipzig’s last 16 UEFA games away from home (including neutral venues) produced a winner in regular time.
