Marc Guéhi, Nico O’Reilly, Rayan Cherki and Phil Foden come in with Rúben Dias, Joško Gvardiol, Ayyoub Bouaddi and Jérémy Doku all dropping to the bench for the 20:00 (UK) kick-off at the Red Bull Arena.
Tonight is our fourth match in the 2026/27 UCL competition following a strong 2-0 away win at FC Porto, a stirring 4-2 home loss to defending champions PSG and a thrilling 5-1 home triumph over AEK Athens, results that have left us 12th in the League Phase and just two points outside the automatic qualification places.
Leipzig, meanwhile, have won one – a 1-0 home success over PSV Eindhoven but have lost their two games away – 4-1 at Como and 4-1 at Real Madrid to place them 28th in the table heading into this evening’s encounter.
TEAMS
CITY XI: Donnarumma, Nunes, Khusanov, Guéhi, O’Reilly, Anderson, Fernández, Ndiaye, Cherki, Foden, Haaland (C)
Subs: Bettinelli, Rulli, Dias, Kovačić, Doku, Aït-Nouri, Reis, Gvardiol, Bouaddi, Allan, Samba, Lewis
TACTICS
Gianluigi Donnarumma is between the sticks for City and protected by a back four of Matheus Nunes, Abdukodir Khusanov, Marc Guéhi and Nico O’Reilly.
Elliot Anderson partners Enzo Fernández in the middle ground while higher up the pitch, Rayan Cherki, Iliman Ndiaye and Phil Foden will provide support for talismanic striker Erling Haaland.
LOVE AND RESPECT
Tonight will see two managers trying everything they can to pick up a vital three points for their teams in what’s sure to be a highly competitive Champions League tie tonight.
But it’s also fair to say there will be a lot of love and respect in the dugouts.
Enzo Maresca and Martin Demichelis know each other very, very well having not only played together in La Liga at Malaga but also lived next to each other as neighbours.
Maresca admitted in his pre-match press conference that they were ‘very close’ while Demichelis said they were ‘almost like brothers’ such was their connection before calling the Italian a ‘winner’ and someone who he thinks will be gunning for glory in the hotseat with the Blues.
There’s also a close connection between Demichelis and City, of course, the former defender having made 106 appearances between 2013 and 2016 during Manuel Pellegrini’s reign, winning the Premier League title and two League Cups during his stay.
The Argentine proved a popular figure among City fans and this week spoke of his ‘three fantastic years’ at the Etihad.
Despite all the warm generosities, though, we all know that winning will be all that matters to everyone this evening.
GOAL MACHINE
Enzo Maresca told media in his pre-match press conference that he was looking for other players to start chipping in with more goals to lessen the load on star striker Erling Haaland.
But he’ll also know that Haaland is a phenom who more than often than not delivers on the biggest of stages.
Haaland has scored 61 goals in 60 UEFA Champions League appearances, with his minutes per goal average of 78.5 the best of any player in the competition to have scored 15+ goals.
Ahead of this one, Haaland has also scored 12 goals in eight appearances against RB Leipzig.
His six goals against them in the UCL are his joint most against any opponent – he also has also six against Sevilla - while five of them came in a single match, in City’s 7-0 win over the Red Bulls in March 2023.
Stunning statistics from a stunning striker.
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HOME COMFORTS
It’s fair to say that RB Leipzig are formidable foes on their home patch.
The German side have an immaculate record at the Red Bull Arena this season – five games, five wins.
Across all competitions, they have triumphed in every game at their stadium and, even more remarkably, not conceded a single goal.
Their results in the Bundesliga read beat Borussia Monchengladbach 3-0, Hamburg 5-0, Frankfurt 6-0 and SV Elversberg 4-0 while in the Champions League they saw off PSV Eindhoven 1-0.
In fact, in the Bundesliga, they have a club record 10 wins in a row, stretching back to March 2026.
It’s sure to be a cauldron this evening as they look to keep up their frightening form in front of their own fans but Enzo Maresca will have other ideas.
MATCH STATS
-RB Leipzig and Manchester City have faced each other six times in European competition (all in the UEFA Champions League), with the German side only winning one of those (D1 L4).
-RB Leipzig have conceded 21 goals in six UEFA Champions League games against City. This is the most they have conceded against any opponent in major European competition, both in terms of a total (21) and a per game average (3.5 – min. 3 meetings).
-The six games between RB Leipzig (9) and Manchester City (21) have seen 30 goals scored. Of fixtures played 5+ times in the European Cup/UEFA Champions League, only games between Milan and Rapid Vienna have a higher goals-per-game ratio (5.8 – 29 goals in five matches).
-RB Leipzig have won their last two UEFA Champions League home games and will be looking to win three in a row for just the second time (a run of four – March-December 2020). That previous winning run also included a victory over Manchester opposition (3-2 v Manchester United in December 2020).
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-City have only won eight of our last 20 games in the UEFA Champions League, since November 2024 (D2 L10). We’ve also won consecutive games just once in this run of 20, against Villarreal and Borussia Dortmund in October-November 2025.
-RB Leipzig haven’t scored more than once in any of their last four UEFA Champions League games (3 goals in total), their longest such run in the competition.
-Full back David Raum has created the most chances (9) and made the most line-breaking passes (36) for RB Leipzig in the UEFA Champions League this season.
-In the opening three matchdays of this season’s UEFA Champions League, no player made more line-breaking passes leading to goals than City’s Enzo Fernández (4 – level with Martin Ødegaard and Nico Paz).
-If he features in this match, Willi Orbán (41) will equal Yussuf Poulsen (42) as the top appearance maker for RB Leipzig in the UEFA Champions League
Subscribe to CITY+ for live audio commentary of Leipzig v City
Listen to live audio commentary of our UEFA Champions League away clash at RB Leipzig live on CITY+.
Our game with Leipzig is a Wednesday 20:00 (UK) kick-off at the Red Bull Arena.
The perfect place to follow the clash with former City defender Martin Demichelis’s team is our CITY+ audio commentary service featuring Alistair Mann with summariser Andy Morrison who will guide fans through proceedings on the pitch.
They will paint the pictures with words and give you blow-by-blow observations of what’s happening as Enzo Maresca’s men set out in search of another victory in the UCL.
Subscribe to CITY+ for £34.99 annually or £9.99 per month – while you can also unlock CITY+ as part of Premium Membership at £65 per year, which brings together the best of City in one membership.
