Manchester City football club
Recent form has been inconsistent, despite previous victories over
Arsenal (name)
Guardiola continued to play his special formation for this match, but was later held to a draw by Nottingham Forest.
(Both teams start)
Manchester City football club
The formation was close to 361, Walker was at right back but he played the whole game up front, B.Silva was at the back along with Rodri, it was a formation with six men in the midfield, Leipzig played 4231
Both teams were careful at the start of the game, Leipzig seemed to put themselves in a defensive position against the
Manchester City football club
's ball-carrying attack stopped just short of doing presses rather than stealing the ball, and their formation stayed intact without showing any breaks, while the
Manchester City football club
Using the right side as a key area of attack, the right channel was completely left for Walker to rush on his own, with Mahrez beside him to assist in the push, which in the first half was
Manchester City football club
's main attacking tool, but it was actually ineffective, generating breaks and crosses, though Leipzig's defense was very solid and consistently kept the ball out centrally
Haaland didn't seem to be in the best of form, appearing on very few shots throughout the game and not pulling out of the box to assist with the ball, which led to him being invisible, due to the
Manchester City football club
They can't hit the box so naturally there are fewer passes, and that's not just true for Haaland.
Manchester City football club
Overall the momentum was low, with significantly less running without the ball, against a Leipzig side that was already in full defensive position.
Manchester City football club
It's not enough to tear through its defenses.
At the 26:00 mark, Leipzig made a mistake at the back, Schlager missed a pass and it was taken away by Grealish, who immediately passed it straight to Mahrez in the center of the field, who then came over to back the ball up and allowed Mahrez to drive into the box for a goal.
Manchester City football club
Caught Leipzig making a rare mistake in this game and grabbed the opportunity to score, Leipzig couldn't stay passive and defensive after that, they had to press out and attack.
At the start of the second half Leipzig utilized Werner more on the left side of the pitch, against
Manchester City football club
causing multiple shocks, and their substitution of Henrichs came close to breaking through on the right wing, the
Manchester City football club
After that, Leipzig played more carefully, but in the 70th minute, Leipzig took advantage of a corner kick, Gvardiol directly pressed Dias to score a header, and then Leipzig wanted to change the attackers to grab points.
Manchester City football club
A full retreat of the defense and control of the ball allowed the game to end in a 1-1 draw.
Manchester City football club
The problem of this game is that their whole team seems to have too little running, besides the strikers can't be the pivot point, the support between the players is also slow, they can't do anything against Leipzig's persistence for most of the time, and it looks like there will still be a fierce battle in the second round.
