With a five-year undefeated run at stake, Pep Guardiola called for two players off the bench who are now making a compelling case to be automatic starters for Manchester City’s strongest team. Julian Alvarez scored the winner and Jérémy Doku played a significant part in a dramatic comeback victory.
Not since 2018, when Lyon beat them, have City tasted defeat at the Etihad in the Champions League and they have not been pushed much closer than this. RB Leipzig looked likely to end that record when Lois Openda got behind their backline twice in the first half.
The game turned nine minutes into the second half when Guardiola called for Alvarez and Doku, who replaced Jack Grealish and Kyle Walker. “Jeremy changed our rhythm and Julian is a special player,” said Guardiola. Alvarez had a hand in Erling Haaland’s equaliser, Phil Foden levelled and Alvarez scored the decisive goal with help from Doku.
Erling Haaland scores with a left foot shot
Erling Haaland claws one back for the champions CREDIT: REUTERS/Carl Recine
City’s signings usually take a year to settle, with the players needing time to adjust to the demands of Guardiola, yet Doku slipped into this team easily. His pace gives Guardiola a different mode of attack, as he often goes for the most direct route to goal while dribbling at speed.
Alvarez, meanwhile, was often an understudy to Haaland last season but can also play with City’s main striker. More accurately, he can play behind him, as a No 10, linking play from midfield to attack but also finding himself in the penalty area to finish moves as he did here in the 87th minute. The Argentina forward’s eight goals this season is a healthy return for his 15 starts.
His winner meant City have topped their group for the seventh consecutive year and will get a favourable draw in the round of 16 when it is made next month. They have not lost a home match of any description for more than a year – since before the World Cup – and after the wake-up calls in the first half, Guardiola was pleased with the reaction sparked by his substitutes.
“We had to be relaxed as possible and we reacted really well,” said Guardiola. “We are first in the group and I am very satisfied for the reaction at the end. The team runs and fights and has spirit.”
For all their technical ability, Leipzig’s opening goal came from a classic route-one move. Janis Blaswich launched a ball downfield and Openda did the rest. The Belgian used his body to nudge Manuel Akanji out of the way without fouling, then raced through to finish into the bottom corner past Stefan Ortega.
To double the lead, he used his body again to get past Ruben Dias after Simons had passed the ball down the left flank. Dias had already been booked for a high boot and simply could not afford to follow his instinct and bring his opponent down on the halfway line. Openda sped towards the penalty area and cut inside Josko Gvardiol before placing his finish in at the near post.
“First half was the worst I’ve seen us,” said Foden. “Courage and motivation courage changed it around. This team has great mentality and its so nice to see. We’ve got a great record at the Etihad and it only takes one goal to change things.
Marco Rose, the Leipzig manager, felt that his team’s performance merely provoked City into a response. “We made them angry in the first half and I told them it would be difficult,” he said. “We saw this in the second half. If we kept the clean sheet a little longer, the chance would be bigger to take something home but we missed a little bit of luck as we played a really good game. Doku came in. Alvarez came in. Everyone knows these guys.”
After the substitutions, Alvarez’s first touch helped set up a goal. The Argentinian found Foden, who in turn sent through Haaland. He put his first-half misses behind him and finished confidently past Blaswich, becoming the fastest player to score 40 Champions League goals.
Foden’s equaliser came with 20 minutes left in the match. He was fed by Gvardiol, who could boast an assist against his former club. With Mohamed Simakan just losing his footing at the crucial moment, Foden took the ball in his stride and stroked it into the bottom corner. It was his fourth goal in six games, his most productive run of the season.
Fabio Carvalho, on loan from Liverpool, came off the bench and thought he had scored for Leipzig but was pulled back for offside. But the winner came with the two subs involved again. Doku crossed, Foden helped it on, with Alvarez applying the finish.
“If you talk about the qualification, it is a great night. If you talk about the game, we could do better,” added Guardiola. “Sloppy goals. You have to win duels and it was the same in the (4-4) Chelsea game. Maybe for the future it will be good to win but not comfortably.
“The way we played in the first half, I was not sure. We are City and we are European champions but you have to earn it and be better at times.
“Today we were lucky.”
Stefan OrtegaGK
24 Josko Gvardiol
3 Rúben Dias
2 Kyle Walker
54’Julián Álvarez
25 Manuel Akanji
16 Rodri
10 Jack Grealish
82 Rico Lewis
20 Bernardo Silva
47 Phil Foden
9 Erling Haaland
KEY MOMENTS
Chosen by us to get you up to speed at a glance
89th min (3-2)
Goal: Alvarez crowns the comeback
71st min (2-2)
Goal: Foden equalises with the deftest of touches
55th min (1-2)
Goal: Haaland wakes the crowd
35th min (0-2)
Goal: Openda doubles Leipzig’s lead
14th min (0-1)
Goal: Openda silences Etihad
With a five-year undefeated run at stake, Pep Guardiola called for two players off the bench who are now making a compelling case to be automatic starters for Manchester City’s strongest team. Julian Alvarez scored the winner and Jérémy Doku played a significant part in a dramatic comeback victory.
Not since 2018, when Lyon beat them, have City tasted defeat at the Etihad in the Champions League and they have not been pushed much closer than this. RB Leipzig looked likely to end that record when Lois Openda got behind their backline twice in the first half.
The game turned nine minutes into the second half when Guardiola called for Alvarez and Doku, who replaced Jack Grealish and Kyle Walker. “Jeremy changed our rhythm and Julian is a special player,” said Guardiola. Alvarez had a hand in Erling Haaland’s equaliser, Phil Foden levelled and Alvarez scored the decisive goal with help from Doku.
Erling Haaland scores with a left foot shot
Erling Haaland claws one back for the champions CREDIT: REUTERS/Carl Recine
City’s signings usually take a year to settle, with the players needing time to adjust to the demands of Guardiola, yet Doku slipped into this team easily. His pace gives Guardiola a different mode of attack, as he often goes for the most direct route to goal while dribbling at speed.
Alvarez, meanwhile, was often an understudy to Haaland last season but can also play with City’s main striker. More accurately, he can play behind him, as a No 10, linking play from midfield to attack but also finding himself in the penalty area to finish moves as he did here in the 87th minute. The Argentina forward’s eight goals this season is a healthy return for his 15 starts.
His winner meant City have topped their group for the seventh consecutive year and will get a favourable draw in the round of 16 when it is made next month. They have not lost a home match of any description for more than a year – since before the World Cup – and after the wake-up calls in the first half, Guardiola was pleased with the reaction sparked by his substitutes.
“We had to be relaxed as possible and we reacted really well,” said Guardiola. “We are first in the group and I am very satisfied for the reaction at the end. The team runs and fights and has spirit.”
For all their technical ability, Leipzig’s opening goal came from a classic route-one move. Janis Blaswich launched a ball downfield and Openda did the rest. The Belgian used his body to nudge Manuel Akanji out of the way without fouling, then raced through to finish into the bottom corner past Stefan Ortega.
To double the lead, he used his body again to get past Ruben Dias after Simons had passed the ball down the left flank. Dias had already been booked for a high boot and simply could not afford to follow his instinct and bring his opponent down on the halfway line. Openda sped towards the penalty area and cut inside Josko Gvardiol before placing his finish in at the near post.
“First half was the worst I’ve seen us,” said Foden. “Courage and motivation courage changed it around. This team has great mentality and its so nice to see. We’ve got a great record at the Etihad and it only takes one goal to change things.
Marco Rose, the Leipzig manager, felt that his team’s performance merely provoked City into a response. “We made them angry in the first half and I told them it would be difficult,” he said. “We saw this in the second half. If we kept the clean sheet a little longer, the chance would be bigger to take something home but we missed a little bit of luck as we played a really good game. Doku came in. Alvarez came in. Everyone knows these guys.”
After the substitutions, Alvarez’s first touch helped set up a goal. The Argentinian found Foden, who in turn sent through Haaland. He put his first-half misses behind him and finished confidently past Blaswich, becoming the fastest player to score 40 Champions League goals.
Foden’s equaliser came with 20 minutes left in the match. He was fed by Gvardiol, who could boast an assist against his former club. With Mohamed Simakan just losing his footing at the crucial moment, Foden took the ball in his stride and stroked it into the bottom corner. It was his fourth goal in six games, his most productive run of the season.
Fabio Carvalho, on loan from Liverpool, came off the bench and thought he had scored for Leipzig but was pulled back for offside. But the winner came with the two subs involved again. Doku crossed, Foden helped it on, with Alvarez applying the finish.
“If you talk about the qualification, it is a great night. If you talk about the game, we could do better,” added Guardiola. “Sloppy goals. You have to win duels and it was the same in the (4-4) Chelsea game. Maybe for the future it will be good to win but not comfortably.
“The way we played in the first half, I was not sure. We are City and we are European champions but you have to earn it and be better at times.
“Today we were lucky.”
Man City 3 RB Leipzig 2: as it happened
LIVE REPORTING
By
Mike McGrath
AT ETIHAD STADIUM and
Rob Bagchi
LIVE UPDATES
10:27PM
Guardiola speaks
It’s the Champions League! Leipzig is a team who have qualified for the last five or six Champion Leagues. We concede too much defensively. You have to win actions and win duels and we didn’t do it. After that we were anxious and we conceded two goals but we react really well in the second half and [reached] our target. We are first in the group and very satisfied for the reaction at the end. The team runs and fights and has a spirit. That was good.
We changed a little bit our press because it wasn’t effective. We hadn’t expect them to play like that [with three at the back]. We adjust something and we scored early which helped a lot. We know we can come back.
We won all the games so far. Important we qualify first and now we can concentrate on the Premier League.
When you play [against 5-4-1] space is not easy. Josko made incredible passes inside and helped us find spaces inside. Then you have the quality of Erling and the others and Rico was exceptional and Phil in the final third was decisive.
Jeremy changed our rhythm and Julian is a special player. Julian, Phil and Erling have an incredible sense of goal.
