UEFA Champions League

Manchester City vs RB Leipzig: City can edge entertaining encounter

Pep Guardiola - Man City
Man City are unbeaten in 17 home Champions League contests

Manchester City meet RB Leipzig at The Etihad on Tuesday night in the Champions League. Betfair writer Mark O'Haire is backing the visitors to avoid defeat.


Manchester City vs RB Leipzig
Tuesday November 28, 20:00
Live on TNT Sport

Manchester City 1.364/11 saw their record-breaking 23-game home winning streak ended on Saturday as Trent Alexander-Arnold's late equaliser gave Liverpool a share of the spoils in the weekend Premier League blockbuster. Erling Haaland has given the Citizens a first-half advantage, whilst Ruben Dias had a goal ruled out for a foul on the goalkeeper.

Pep Guardiola's side were made to pay for their failure in killing Liverpool off, and although the Man City supremo could not hide his pleasure at his team's performance, he would also have been hiding deep frustration with the final outcome as the defending champions failed to turn winning positions into maximum points for the second successive showdown.

Speaking post-match, Guardiola said, "That was an excellent performance. We were really good in all departments and needed to be against an incredible team. Maybe we missed the last pass a little bit but they defended really well. To concede just two shots on target against Liverpool is a big compliment for the way we work."

With qualification already assured in the Champions League, the Catalan coach could opt to shuffle his pack in midweek. John Stones returned to the squad on Saturday and may feature from the off, whilst Jack Grealish could also return following illness. Kevin de Bruyne, Mateo Kovacic and Matheus Nunes are the only confirmed absentees.

RB Leipzig 9.6017/2 lost further ground in the Bundesliga title race after suffering a surprise 2-1 defeat at Wolfsburg despite dominating at the weekend. Die Rotten Bullien boss Marco Rose said, "I'm really angry about what we ended up with here: nothing! We were quite decent, but we were a little unlucky, though that's not enough for me - I want more."

Leipzig won the shot count 25-9, generated 2.77 Expected Goals (xG) and missed five Big Chances over the course of the contest with 18 of their attempts arriving from inside the box. Yussuf Poulsen scored the side's only goal and should again partner Lois Openda in attack with Benjamin Sesko and Timo Werner struggling for fitness and Dani Olmo out.

Citizens to edge enjoyable encounter

Manchester City have run out 6-3 and 7-0 winners when welcoming RB Leipzig to The Etihad in two of the past three years. A similar assault looks unlikely considering both sides have already secured their place in the knockout stage but a goal-heavy performance from Pep Guardiola's group could well be in the offing again.

Man City are W12-D5-L0 hosting Champions League football since their semi-final reverse in May 2022 and should be capable of enhancing that record against a Leipzig side that's lost all of their last four trips to England in UCL action by an aggregate 20-3. The visitors have already been turned over three times across their six away trips in the Bundesliga.

Nevertheless, backing Manchester City to win and Both Teams To Score at 8/52.60 represents the most appealing play here considering the Citizens have only managed three clean sheets across their eight home encounters this term, meaning our proposed play has pocketed profit in half of their overall Etihad outings in 2023/24. Leipzig have scored in 17/20.

Back Man City to win & BTTS @ 8/52.60

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Mark's 2023/24 Profit/Loss

Staked: 33 pts

Returned: 39.43 pts

P/L: +6.43 pts

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Mark O'Haire avatar

Mark O'Haire

Long-standing betting.betfair tipster and member of the award-winning podcast, Football... Only Bettor.

Prices quoted in copy are correct at time of publication but liable to change.

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