Report, reaction and analysis
David Hytner was at the Etihad this evening. His report has landed, and here it is. Thanks for reading this one. Nighty night!
Pep Guardiola is unsurprisingly in a good mood on BT Sport. “It was a really good performance from minute one until the end from everyone … very good, very good … our pressing was incredibly good … we played really, really, really, really good, really, really good with the ball and without the ball … we scored lots of goals and Erling was amazing but everyone was exceptional … it’s five in 60 minutes … if he was to do 90 minutes, I don’t know … he is an incredible guy with huge talent, power and mentality, he is a serial winner … we scored four goals here to Real Madrid, six against Monaco, four against Tottenham, and all the time we were out, because we conceded goals … right now these guys defend really well … but of course having a weapon like Erling in this competition is important … Kevin is extraordinary, the rhythm he played today, his movement, is the Kevin we know … and we haven’t seen that so much this season … he is unstoppable.”
Tonight’s other last-16 match ended Porto 0-0 Internazionale. That puts the 1964, 1965 and 2010 winners into the quarters for the first time since 2011. They’ll be in the pot for the draw along with Manchester City, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Benfica and … neighbours Milan. Now wouldn’t that be fun? The line-up will be completed tomorrow evening, when the smart money is on champions Real Madrid and Napoli to complete their tasks after fine away wins against Liverpool and Eintracht Frankfurt respectively.
The record-breaking and record-equalling Erling Haaland enjoys a light-hearted back-and-forth with BT Sport. “It’s a big night … I’m really proud to play Champions League, I love this competition … five goals, to win 7-0 at home, I’m so happy … I’m a bit blurry in my head so I don’t remember the goals! … I was so tired after the celebrations! … we have to put pressure, we have to run … in my opinion we should do this more … a lot of goals I didn’t think, it was just doing it … just trying to get the ball in the back of the net … a lot of it is being quick in the mind and trying to do the right thing … a little bit of it is quality but a lot is in the head … [performs comic sulk mime] I told Pep when I went off that I would like to score a double hat-trick, but what can you do?”
For the record, ten players managed a one-match five-goal haul during the European Cup years: Owe Ohlsson (Gothenburg), Bent Lofqvist (Boldklubben 1913), Jose Altafini (Milan), Ray Crawford (Ipswich Town), Nikola Kotkov (Lokomotiv Sofia), Flórián Albert (Ferencvaros), Paul Van Himst (Anderlecht), Gerd Muller (Bayern Munich), Claudio Sulser (Grasshopper Zurich), Soren Lerby (Ajax).
So, then. Altafini. Albert. Van Himst. Muller. Lerby. Messi. Haaland. That is not bad company to be keeping. Not bad company at all!
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The PA guy announces a “full-time score of Manchester City eight, RB Leipzig nil, nine-one on aggregate” before issuing an immediate correction. Hey, can you blame him for getting carried away after that? Erling Haaland becomes only the third player to score five goals in a single match during the Champions League era, after Lionel Messi did so for Barcelona against Bayer Leverkusen in 2012, and Luiz Adriano matched the feat two years later for Shakhtar Donetsk against BATE Borisov.
FULL TIME: Manchester City 7-0 RB Leipzig (De Bruyne 90+2); agg 8-1
Erling Haaland scores five. His season’s tally of 39 breaks a club record set by Tommy Johnson in 1929. There’s still a big chunk of the season, in three competitions, to go!
GOAL! Manchester City 7-0 RB Leipzig (De Bruyne 90+2); agg 8-1
Mahrez jinks down the right and rolls the ball across the face of the Leipzig box. De Bruyne takes a touch on the edge of the D, opens his body, and curls gracefully into the top-right corner. What a performance by Manchester City!
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90 min +1: A reminder, courtesy of Steve Waterhouse, that this sort of carry-on is nothing new.
90 min: There will be two added minutes.
89 min: City knock it around, tick, tock.
87 min: Raum eventually gets up. He looks pretty groggy. His head would have been swimming already as a result of the circles City have been running around him. He’s cleared to continue, though.
85 min: Mahrez jinks his way down the right and wins a corner. Leipzig clear, as Blaswich accidentally clatters his own man Raum. A sore one, though if nothing else it gives Leipzig the opportunity to run down a chunk of the clock. On comes the trainer.
83 min: Bernardo Silva crosses from the left. Akanji leaps and sends a weak header towards the bottom left. Easy for Blaswich, who may have made one or two crucial mistakes with his distribution, but has also kept the score down. This is bad for Leipzig all right, but it could have been a whole lot worse.
81 min: To paraphrase the late, great Sid Waddell: when Alexander of Macedonia was 33, he cried salt tears because there were no more worlds to conquer … Erling Haaland’s only 22.
79 min: Ederson plays carelessly out and nearly tees up Laimer on the edge of the box. Laimer can’t get a shot away. Leipzig come again, though, and Andre Silva attempts a curler towards the bottom left. Always heading wide, and Ederson had it covered.
78 min: Phillips ships possession, then Akanji is booked for a late slide on Olmo. City have earned the right to get a little sloppy, to be fair. On which subject, here’s Rob Moore: “At risk of sounding churlish, this is all very impressive, but doesn’t really tell us anything new. We’ve known for six years that City are capable of amazing, near-unstoppable football, but their failures in Europe have come down to a mix of not performing, Pep tinkering, and Real bloody Madrid. If this City performance comes around every game they’ll win it, but we all know they’ve got a dodgy one in there somewhere.”
76 min: Thirty-eight goals in 36 matches, though! There’s still over a quarter of the season to go!
74 min: In the dugout, Haaland sits sprawled in his chair with a coat draped over his shoulders, a huge contented smile playing across his face. All that’s missing is some brandy being rolled around a tumbler and a fat cigar on the go.
72 min: Leipzig replace Szoboszlai with Olmo.
71 min: City ping the ball around in the swaggering manner. Leipzig can’t get a touch. Like that’s breaking news.
69 min: A reminder that should the tie finish all square at the end of normal time, there will be extra time and possibly penalties.
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67 min: De Bruyne is dragged back by Henrichs, but doesn’t get the free kick. He tells it as he sees it, and the referee pops him into the book.
66 min: The City fans are in full party mode now. Blue Moon. The Poznan. Dreams of finally breaking their Champions League duck. Real Madrid watch out!
64 min: City swap out three players too. Phillips, Alvarez and Gomes come on for Stones, Rodri and … the five-goal hero Erling Haaland. What an ovation he gets! It’s fair to say he’s earned it.
63 min: Leipzig make a triple substitution. Haidara, Forsberg and Werner make way for Simakan, Poulsen and Silva.
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61 min: Leipzig are an excellent side, too. They’ve only lost two of their last 24 games in all competitions! City are throwing down some gauntlet to the rest of Europe here.
59 min: Before that goal, Haaland – then with a mere four goals to his name tonight – chased down Blaswich with absurd vigour. That press, press, press attitude has clearly rattled Leipzig from the get-to. He’s an astonishing force of nature!
GOAL! Manchester City 6-0 Leipzig (Haaland 57); agg 7-1
He’s got the record for himself now! A corner. Mahrez crosses from the right. Akanji tries to flick goalwards. The ball’s blocked. But it drops to Haaland, who belts a low shot into the bottom left. It was unstoppable, of course!
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56 min: That was Haaland’s fourth of the evening, and 38th of the season. He therefore ties Tommy Johnson’s season-best record for City, a mark set in 1929.
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55 min: Any respite for Leipzig? Nope! On come Foden and Mahrez, as Gundogan and Grealish make way.
GOAL! Manchester City 5-0 Leipzig (Haaland 53); agg 6-1
One corner leads to another. It’s swung long from the right by De Bruyne. Silva heads back across goal from the left-hand corner of the six-yard box. Haaland rises high and powers a header down towards goal. Blaswich bravely parries on the line, but the ball breaks back to Haaland, via Akanji, and the big man slams home!
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52 min: Silva rolls down the right for De Bruyne, who fires a low cross in from a tight spot. Orban hangs out a leg and nearly deflects into his own net, the ball looping over the bar. He had to intervene, Haaland (who else?) was waiting to slam home in the middle.
51 min: That was some team move. None more Pep.
GOAL! Manchester City 4-0 Leipzig (Gundogan 49); agg 5-1
City are in imperious form. A sensational team goal. De Bruyne slips Grealish into space down the left. Grealish doesn’t have an option so turns tail. The ball ends up all the way back with Ederson, who switches play to the right. De Bruyne then slips infield for Haaland, who shuttles further left to Grealish again. This time Grealish lays off to Gundogan, who from the edge of the box, takes a touch before passing a low diagonal shot into the bottom right. Astonishing!
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47 min: A fairly subdued atmosphere now at the Etihad. Everyone knows this is over. Like any of the home fans are complaining.
Leipzig get the second half underway. No changes.
Half-time postbag. “Chances are they’d have lost anyway, but that VAR decision has likely cost Leipzig the tie. If that’s a penalty, I’m Erling Haaland. And Jim Goodwin is Pep Guardiola” – Simon McMahon
“Clear foul and clear yellow for Ederson. Outrageously poor call. And I say this as an Arsenal fan hoping City goes all the way to the final in the CL, foregoing the league in the process!” – Ben Bernards
“Why did Henrichs get booked for the handball? Yes. It was a handball/penalty. But his back was turned to Rodri and the ball. Rodri saw the arm out and headed the ball onto it. Since Henrichs had no knowledge of where the ball was and Rodri was looking for a penalty instead of trying to pick a pass, it seems insanely harsh for him to get carded” – Eagle Brosi
“Can there be a new rule that VAR can’t give a penalty if no one is appealing for one?” – Crispin Leyser
HALF TIME: Manchester City 3-0 RB Leipzig (agg 3-1)
Haaland generously points to Dias, to suggest where the plaudits should be going. But it’s his goal. Yet another hat-trick! What a player. Unless something monumentally odd occurs in the next hour, Manchester City are in the quarter-finals of the Champions League!
GOAL! Manchester City 3-0 RB Leipzig (Haaland 45+2); agg 3-1
De Bruyne wins a corner down the left. Grealish takes and hits it long. Dias rises at the far post and plants a header onto the post. The ball bobbles along the line. Haidara tries to hook clear but only manages to knock the ball onto Haaland’s shin, and it whistles in from a couple of yards!
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45 min: There will be two added first-half minutes.
44 min: Szoboszlai slips Werner into space down the left. The flag goes up for offside. The Hungarian international has probably been Leipzig’s best player during this first half.
42 min: Silva comes dancing in from the right, past three challenges. He’s unable to ride a fourth. Another goal now would surely finish off Leipzig before the break.
40 min: A period of relative calm.
38 min: De Bruyne rolls a free kick down the right to release Gundogan into the box. Easy as that! Gundogan’s slapshot is parried, and somehow evades Haaland in the middle. He’s after that hat-trick! Getting ever closer.
37 min: That was a big let off for City. A very strange, jittery display by both teams here.
35 min: Rodri, facing his own goal, underhits a backpass and lets Laimer in down the right. Laimer rolls instantly across for Werner, who fresh-airs a swipe in trying to poke home from eight yards. City so close to gifting a goal and a lifeline to Leipzig!
34 min: … Leipzig counter. Szoboszlai loops a pass down the inside-left channel to chase. Laimer hares after it. Ederson, rashly racing out of his box, clatters into Laimer and looks to have cleaned him out. But the referee gives the foul to City. Werner is booked for placing his hands on the referee during his complaint.
33 min: De Bruyne delivers it high. Blaswich punches clear, albeit with very little conviction. Corner on the right, from which …
32 min: Leipzig are properly rattled, and now Orban needlessly skittles Grealish near the left-hand corner flag. De Bruyne to swing in a free kick from a dangerous position.
31 min: Haaland is in the mood to complete one of those hat-tricks he so often notches. He meets a ball rolled down the inside-left channel with a swivel and a vicious drive. Blaswich does well to parry at his near post.
30 min: Rain in Manchester isn’t news. Snow is, though. A fairly heavy shower.
28 min: … and breathe. Probably worth noting that Leipzig were extremely unhappy with the penalty decision, Rodri’s header scraping the arm of Henrichs, who was facing the other way at close proximity. There’s also a suggestion that Haaland fouled, rather than aggressively pressed, Blaswich during the build-up to the second. But here we are!
26 min: So there were 78 of your real-time seconds between those goals. And they had been coming. City could quite easily be four or five up already. Their press has done a real number on Leipzig, with Blaswich harried into a clearance that started the combination leading to the second goal. A nightmare couple of minutes for the Leipzig keeper.
GOAL! Manchester City 2-0 RB Leipzig (Haaland 24); agg 3-1
Nineteen seconds after kick off, Haaland scores again! First he hunts down Blaswich, who clears just in time. Akanji volleys back down the middle. Haaland cushions a header down to De Bruyne, who opens his body and from the edge of the box, cracks a screamer off the bar. The ball loops to Haaland, who heads it home with no fuss whatsoever. The Etihad lifts off for Mars!
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GOAL! Manchester City 1-0 RB Leipzig (Haaland 22 pen); agg 2-1
Haaland forensically fires a low drive into the bottom right. Blaswich went the right way, but such was the power and precision of Haaland’s strike, he was never getting there. City lead!
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Penalty to City!
21 min: But hold on! VAR wants a look at a possible penalty! One of those Rodri headers clanked Henrichs on his right arm, which was well away from his body. The referee goes over to the screen, makes his decision, draws a TV set in the air, and points to the spot! Henrichs is booked, and Haaland will take.
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19 min: … the corner leads to a game of pinball in the Leipzig six-yard box. Rodri heads. Akanji swishes a shot. Rodri heads again. The ball drops to Haaland, but he can’t get a shot away, with Raum toeing away at the last. What an escape!
18 min: Silva rolls down the right for De Bruyne, who is having an awful lot of joy out on this wing. De Bruyne crosses deep from the touchline. Blaswich claims calmly, but then, in attempting to play out from the back, shanks a simple pass out of play for a corner. It’s nearly an awfully expensive mistake, too, because …
17 min: Grealish dribbles down the left and slips Ake in on the overlap. Ake cuts back for De Bruyne, who has his back to goal and so cushions the ball into Grealish’s path. Grealish opens his body and looks for the top right. The shot pings off Orban’s knee and out for a corner, from which nothing comes. But what a lovely flowing move by the hosts there. It would have been a picture-book goal.
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15 min: Dias plays a poor ball out from the back. It’s intercepted by Szoboszlai, who sends Raum into space down the left. Raum fizzes a low cross into the box. Ederson gets down to smother. A better cross there, and City, despite their excellent start, would have been in a world of pain.
13 min: De Bruyne drives with great determination along the right touchline. He’s got hardly any room to play with, under intense defensive pressure, but still manages to dig out a cross towards the far stick. Blaswich claims confidently. City are coming at Leipzig from all angles.
11 min: Ake sails a glorious long pass down the inside-left channel to release Haaland. The big man gets into the box first, aided by a little shove in the back from Gvardiol, and tries to poke first time past the out-rushing keeper. Blaswich manages to hang out a leg to block and the ball’s hoofed clear by Orban. Even closer! City could feasibly be a couple of goals up already.
9 min: City stroke it around the middle in the dominant style. Then suddenly Grealish picks up the pace down the left and nearly executes a defence-splitting one-two with Gundogan. Not quite, but again, City go very close to getting things very right.
7 min: From the resulting throw, Grealish and Haaland combine down the left. The ball’s rolled back to Ake, who curls infield. His cross sails behind Haaland, but not by much. City look in the mood to carve out a few chances tonight.
6 min: Orban blasts what should have been a simple pass out of play, under pressure from the City press. Anything Leipzig can do, City can do just as well, if not better.
4 min: Silva wins the first corner of the evening down the right. Leipzig deal with it easily enough, despite Akanji winning a header at the far post.
3 min: On the touchline, Pep is already frantically making tweaks. Whatever he’s saying nearly pays instant dividend, as Silva slips De Bruyne into space down the right. De Bruyne whips to the far post, where Gundogan leans back and sidefoots over from 12 yards. It was a chance. Not an easy one, but a chance. It would have been one heck of a goal.
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2 min: Leipzig come out pressing hard, much as Marco Rose promised. Kampl looks for Werner with a wedged pass down the middle but his team-mate knows he’s miles offside and doesn’t even bother chasing it.
Manchester City v RB Leipzig (agg: 1-1)
City get the ball rolling. Blue Moon ringing around the stadium. A proper European atmosphere under the lights!
A laser show, the coda of Hey Jude, the performative booing of Uefa’s version of Zadok the Priest, and out come the teams! Manchester City wear their sky blue shirts, Leipzig third-choice black and red. Last up the tunnel, Pep and Marco, arm in arm, the best of friends. We’ll be off in a minute!
Pre-match postbag. “I think I’d have an easier time winning the Powerball than correctly predicting one of Pep’s lineups” – Blake Mitchell
“Marco Rose’s comments don’t really lead me to believe that Leipzig are coming out with the intention of getting a stomp on, nor are setting up for thrilling heroics in this tie. It seems that they’re quite happy to let the game flow at City’s pace, and bend like a willow, as Taylor Swift once sang about, but probably not with artistic inspiration from Big Cup footy” – Bill Preston
“Should be an interesting second leg in the liquid gold derby. The ooze of crude petroleum will likely prove too much for the sugary fizz of energy drink but hey, it’s football and anything can happen. I’ll join Pep Guardiola in nervously opening a plastic bottle of drinking water, taking a distracted pull and screwing the cap back on with excessive force” – Peter Oh
Pep Guardiola speaks to BT. “We will give defenders help in the build-up … everyone is available and ready … all four [defenders] can play in different shapes so we are set up for that … they start with a lot of players inside … maybe they’ll change their shape but we’ll see after five minutes.”
Leipzig coach Marco Rose speaks to BT. “We have to defend a lot of situations but we want to attack too … the midfield is of course an important part of the game … in Leipzig we saw how it was not working and how it could work … we were more active and pressed them … we made them problems … we have to try to gain possession … it is not easy but if you just run against the ball it’s getting difficult … Erling is Erling and he will be trying to score today against me and my team … we have no special plan against him but we have to do everything on the highest possible level because he is really dangerous … we are really confident, that’s why we come here … we played a good first leg and we can be confident … the winner goes to the next stage … we want to play a good game and see what we get.”
Manchester City make two changes to the XI named to start the first leg in Leipzig. John Stones and Kevin De Bruyne come in for Kyle Walker and Riyad Mahrez, who both drop to the bench.
Leipzig make four changes to their starting XI from the first leg. Amadou Haidara, David Raum, Benjamin Henrichs and Kevin Kampl come in for Lukas Klostermann,André Silva and Marcel Halstenberg, who drop to the bench, and the injured Xaver Schlager. Christopher Nkunku, who came on as a sub in the first leg, also misses out through injury.
The teams
Manchester City: Ederson, Stones, Akanji, Dias, Ake, Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Gundogan, Bernardo, Grealish, Haaland.
Subs: Ortega, Carson, Walker, Phillips, Laporte, Álvarez, Gómez, Mahrez, Perrone, Foden, Palmer, Lewis.
RB Leipzig: Blaswich, Henrichs, Orbán, Gvardiol, Raum, Laimer, Haidara, Szoboszlai, Kampl, Forsberg, Werner.
Subs: Nyland, Nickisch, Simakan, Olmo, Poulsen, Klostermann, Silva, Halstenberg, Ba.
Referee: Slavko Vinčić (Slovenia).
TEAM NEWS ✨
— Manchester City (@ManCity) March 14, 2023
XI | Ederson, Stones, Akanji, Dias, Ake, Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Gundogan (C), Bernardo, Grealish, Haaland
SUBS | Ortega Moreno, Carson, Walker, Phillips, Laporte, Alvarez, Gomez, Mahrez, Perrone, Foden, Palmer, Lewis#ManCity pic.twitter.com/J1EMKy6Mpb
The Masterplan 🧠#MCIRBL #UCL pic.twitter.com/QfAOSYry51
— RB Leipzig English (@RBLeipzig_EN) March 14, 2023
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Preamble
Three weeks ago this happened …
… but 18 months ago this happened …
… so Manchester City should be quietly confident of progressing to the quarter-finals tonight. They’ll have to be better than they were in the second half in Germany, though. Kick off at the Etihad is 8pm GMT. It’s on!
