First without a chance, then strong
RB Leipzig earn hope against Manchester
02/22/2023 10:54 p.m
For half-time it looks like RB Leipzig will have a bitter evening against Manchester City. Disciplined but without a chance, the Bundesliga soccer club presents itself in the round of 16 of the Champions League. A blunder causes the backlog. But a strong second half brings hope.
Miracle striker Erling Haaland signed off, fought a deserved draw: RB Leipzig went 1-1 (0-1) against the star ensemble of Manchester City from the first act of the round of 16 of the Champions League. In front of 45,228 fans, the English champions used a gross Leipzig blunder to give Riyad Mahrez the lead (27th minute). After there was almost a class difference in front of the eyes of national coach Hansi Flick in the first half, Leipzig improved enormously and came to a deserved equalizer through Josko Gvardiol (70th). That should give RB courage for the second leg on March 14th.
Before the highlight game, Ralf Rangnick was officially dismissed three and a half years after leaving RB. The former Leipzig coach and sports director received words of thanks from former club boss Oliver Mintzlaff and a photo collage, and the fans gave warm applause. What happened in Leipzig, Rangnick said into the stadium microphone, fills him “with pride and great joy”. Rangnick should also have liked the initial appearance of his ex-team.
As expected, the Saxons had significantly less possession of the ball than ManCity’s passing machine around German captain Ilkay Gündogan, but they initially defended compactly. The three offensives Emil Forsberg, Timo Werner and André Silva also started consistently. Top attacker Christopher Nkunku was initially on the bench after his short spell last weekend after a nearly 100-day injury break had repercussions.
At Manchester, the absence of the sick midfield star Kevin De Bruyne was noticeable, and star striker Haaland was a little up in the air. But when RB made the first gross mistake, the Guardiola team struck ice cold: After a bad pass from Xaver Schlager into Jack Grealish’s feet, the ball finally landed at Mahrez, who didn’t give Leipzig goalkeeper Janis Blaswich a chance to defend himself.
After falling behind, Leipzig wobbled a lot, at first they only rarely got into duels. The somewhat surprisingly positioned full-backs Lukas Klostermann and Marcel Halstenberg were often left behind. The Premier League second, on the other hand, acted with even more self-confidence. Grealish with a long-range shot (36th) and Rodri with a header (40th) had good chances to make it 2-0. Werner’s harmless attempt in stoppage time was Leipzig’s first and only shot on goal in the first half.
Rose reacted at the break and brought in a new right-back in Benjamin Henrichs for Klostermann – and this change paid off immediately. With two good chances (53rd and 55th), Henrichs was already close to equalizing, the whole team had a lot more confidence in the game with the ball.
Manchester came under increasing pressure. The defense around former Dortmund player Manuel Akanji was not always solid. In the 66th minute, Nkunku came to Forsberg with great applause – and with him the equalizer: City goalkeeper Ederson undercut the ball from a corner, which scorer Gvardiol took advantage of. After that, both teams didn’t take any more risks.