Antonio Nusa 61'Castello Junior Lukeba 37' (og)
Enzo Fernández 58'
Erling Haaland 78'
Manchester City twice had their lead cancelled out on Wednesday 4 November before Haaland had the last word on matchday four of the Champions League league phase. Elliot Anderson supplied the pass for the winner in Leipzig, and City held on through a nervy final 12 minutes.
The visitors went ahead in the 37th minute when Lukeba turned the ball into his own net. City took that one-goal advantage into the break, by which time Leipzig already had two players booked: Baumgartner in the 17th minute and Baku in the 33rd.
Baku and Nusa pull Leipzig level twice
Baku made amends four minutes after the restart. The full-back, already on a yellow card, met Brajan Gruda’s assist to make it 1-1 in the 49th minute, a minute after El Aynaoui had also gone into the book.
City restored their lead on 58 minutes. Iliman Ndiaye set up Enzo Fernández, who was rated 7.98 for his evening’s work.
Leipzig answered almost at once. Antonio Nusa finished from Christopher Nkunku’s pass three minutes later, and the Norwegian winger finished with a match rating of 8.2, the highest on the pitch, after four key passes in his 73 minutes.
Haaland punishes Leipzig after Raum booking
David Raum was cautioned in the 77th minute, Leipzig’s fourth yellow card of the night. Sixty seconds later Haaland struck from Anderson’s assist, his only goal from three shots. Haaland was rated 8.
The closing stages brought more bookings, this time for City. Jeremy Doku was shown a yellow for time wasting in the 88th minute and Abdukodir Khusanov was booked in the fourth minute of stoppage time.
The numbers favoured the visitors. City had 64% of the ball, completed 611 passes to Leipzig’s 305 and generated expected goals of 2.22 against 0.91. Leipzig actually took more shots, 14 to 12, and landed six on target to City’s five, but committed 20 fouls to City’s seven.
City extend winning run over Leipzig to four
The result offered relief for Maresca. City arrived without a win in three matches, having lost 1-2 to Aston Villa, drawn 2-2 with Brighton and then lost 0-1 to Brighton.
It also continued a familiar pattern in this fixture. City have now beaten Leipzig in four successive Champions League meetings, including a 7-0 win in March 2023 and an identical 3-2 scoreline at home in November 2023. Leipzig’s last victory over them came in December 2021.
For Demichelis’s side, the defeat ended a run of three straight wins in all competitions, against SV Elversberg, Rot-Weiß Essen and FC Schalke 04.
Both clubs return to domestic action on Saturday 7 November. Leipzig host FC Augsburg in the Bundesliga, while City travel to Nottingham Forest in the Premier League.
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