Riyad Mahrez scored the first goal, giving Manchester City the lead before halftime, crowning a dominant opening from the Premier League champions before Josko Gvardiol then scored to secure a 1-1 draw for RB Leipzig in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie match.
But Leipzig emerged with renewed purpose after the break and halftime substitute Benjamin Henrichs twice went close before Croatia defender Gvardiol converted Marcel Halstenberg’s cross as City was caught unaware from a short corner.
The Champions League last 16 has not been kind to the Premier League teams so far, with Tottenham and Chelsea slipping to 1-0 defeats away from home against AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund respectively before Real Madrid hammered Liverpool 5-2 at Anfield.
RB Leipzig vs. Man City score
| 1H | 2H | Final | |
| RBL | 0 | 1 | — |
| MCI | 1 | 0 | — |
Goals:
MCI — Riyad Mahrez (Ilkay Gundogan) — 27th minute.
RBL — Josko Gvardiol (Marcel Halstenberg) — 70th minute.
Man City was dominant during the first half of the match. Guardiola sent out a more conventional back four than he has deployed in recent weeks but, in practice, Kyle Walker almost played as a right winger in possession and this was an unexpected threat Leipzig failed to deal with.
The knock-on from Walker’s placement was Mahrez being allowed to operate in-field, much closer to center-forward Erling Haaland, and the goal was his reward for taking up these positions. Jack Grealish snaffled a slack pass from Xaver Schlager and found Ilkay Gundogan, whose deft backheel took Gvardiol out of the game and left Mahrez to rifle home his 12th of the season.
Man. City was however unable to make their dominance count further, with a Rodri header from a Mahrez corner just evading Haaland before the impressive Grealish curled narrowly over the top corner.
Marco Rose’s introduced Henrichs at the break before Leipzig headed off target to shoot a glorious chance just past the post.
Haaland belatedly got half a sight of goal when he shot wide from a tight angle on the end of a Grealish through-ball but the man he sprinted past on that occasion, Gvardiol, got the goal at the other end after Ederson turned Dominik Szoboszlai’s drive over the bar.