(Football news) When they entered the half 2-0 behind, Pep Guardiola’s team knew they would have to win on matchday six in Belgrade in order to guarantee a seeding in the round of sixteen draw.
Similar to how she scored the opening goal for the visitors, Lois Openda made swift progress from behind the goal line to take advantage of some careless City defending. The Etihad was left astonished and facing their first home loss in 29 European games.
But Manchester City gained momentum in the second half, with Phil Foden tying the score with 20 minutes left after Leipzig’s bitter rival Erling Haaland had pulled the hosts back into the match.
The winning goal was scored by Julian Alvarez after a move that was begun by Jeremy Doku and subsequently completed by the two early substitutes in the second half. City’s amazing home unbeaten record was maintained.
Even though Guardiola started Rodri in midfield and Haaland at the front of the line, Manchester City was clearly well behind their typical extremely high standards from the start.
Within five minutes, Xavi Simons got the first striker, but he missed Stefan Ortega’s left-hand post with a flash from the edge of the area.
However, it didn’t take long for the Eastern German away supporters to start cheering after goalkeeper Janis Blaswich’s long punt up field was missed by Manuel Akanji. Openda then spun Akanji, and the Belgian maintained his cool to defeat Ortega.
Ruben Dias’s night swiftly took a turn for the worse when he was booked and found himself at fault for Leipzig’s second goal, following his tight miss from a set-piece.
Although Dias knew he would be sent off if he brought down the Leipzig player, he was uneasy about another hopeful ball up field towards Openda because he got too close to the forward and was beaten. However, the man of the match still had a lot of work to do, and he performed it brilliantly by slotting the ball between Josko Gvardiol’s legs and tricking Ortega to make it 2-0.
Haaland’s effort quickly after falling down two goals summed up Manchester City’s poor first half performance; the Norwegian scored from barely 12 yards out, and Guardiola was clearly not pleased as he headed down the tunnel for halftime.
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