Manchester City vs. RB Leipzig preview: Team news and predicted lineups

Here is our preview of Tuesday’s Champions League group stage clash between Manchester City and RB Leipzig, including predicted lineups.

On their last visit to the Etihad Stadium in March, RB Leipzig were thrashed 7-0 by Manchester City in the last 16 of last season’s Champions League.

On Tuesday night, Marco Rose’s men return to the scene of last season’s thrashing in the hope of a much better result.

“It doesn’t help Xavi, Castello Jr or Baumi if I tell them that we lost heavily here last year. It’s a new Champions League season, a new team. We can do better tomorrow, but we also know it’s going to be a very big challenge,” RB Leipzig coach Marco Rose told reporters at his pre-match press conference.

“We’re up against a confident team with outstanding quality, but my team still wants to prove themselves and show what they’re made of.”

Leipzig are second in Group G, three points behind Manchester City, and have already qualified for the knockout stages.

But even with a place in the round of 16 already secured, Rose was keen to stress the importance of the game for Leipzig, who are coming off a disappointing 2-1 defeat to Wolfsburg.

“This is an important game for us – it’s the Champions League. We didn’t get a good result in Wolfsburg on Saturday, but we think we played well. But we were missing something to get a good result,” Rose said, adding:

“The aim is to put those things on the pitch tomorrow. I’m talking about consistency and hunger. This is a benchmark of the absolute top level. How are we going to perform at that level? How are we going to approach the game against City?

Timo Werner will miss the game with an adductor problem, but Benjamin Sesko and Kevin Kampl are back in the squad.

Manchester City, who are coming off back-to-back draws in the Premier League, will be without John Stones, Mateo Kovacic, Matheus Nunes and Kevin De Bruyne.

Click here to see our predicted Manchester City vs. RB Leipzig lineups.

Related stories