The tie is finely poised going into the match at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday, 14 March following a 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture.
Riyad Mahrez gave us a deserved first-half lead at the Red Bull Arena when he fired into the bottom corner, before Josko Gvardiol equalised with 20 minutes remaining.
And De Bruyne explained how Pep Guardiola’s side are prepared for the task at hand following our experience in Germany.
“The risk of underestimating them is not that big because I think we’ve played them now three times in the last two years,” he said.
“We already know what kind of team it is. High energy and quality. An intense team. They have that Red Bull DNA where they play a lot of players in the middle.
“They are very aggressive, they know how to make it a tough game and I think they have a lot of quality.”
De Bruyne is no stranger to the Bundesliga outfit after featuring against them a total of three times throughout his career.
His first meeting with Marco Rose’s side came in a 2-0 2015 DFB-Pokal victory for his former club Wolfsburg at the Red Bull Arena.
At the time, Leipzig were still operating in the German second division, but have since enjoyed a meteoric rise to the UEFA Champions League and consistent top-four Bundesliga finishes.
And the Belgian is all too aware of the quality the German team possess going into the second leg last-16 tie.
He added: “I played against them with Wolfsburg in the cup when they were in the second division and it’s pretty similar. Kimmich and Poulsen were still there.
“Obviously I’ve been away for a long time. They took a step from eight years ago from second division to playing top four and Champions League all the time.
“You can’t do this without having so much quality. So, I’m aware of what traits they have, but hopefully we’ll manage that tomorrow.”
