Soccer

RB Leipzig and Gvardiol raise game to secure draw as Man City fade in second half

Pep Guardiola’s side were coasting and had opened the scoring through Riyad Mahrez

Josko Gvardiol heads home RB Leipzig's equaliser during the Champions League round of 16, first leg against Manchester City at Red Bull Arena. Photograph: Lars Baron/Getty Images
Josko Gvardiol heads home RB Leipzig's equaliser during the Champions League round of 16, first leg against Manchester City at Red Bull Arena. Photograph: Lars Baron/Getty Images
Jonathan Liew at Red Bull Arena
Wed Feb 22 2023 - 22:18

RB Leipzig 1 Manchester City 1

Nottingham Forest could be dismissed as a blip. This was an altogether more worrying display from Manchester City, who again huffed and heaved but somehow seemed to look less coherent as the game went on. For 45 minutes they simply toyed with their hosts, scoring through Riyad Mahrez and giving the distinct impression that they could raise the tempo whenever they wanted.

Instead the ignition came from Leipzig, so wan and timid in the first half, but a changed proposition in recent months under their new coach Marco Rose. Roared on by a deafening home crowd, they deservedly equalised through Josip Gvardiol, had chances enough to win it, and by the end were thoroughly dominating one of the best teams in the world.

And so a tantalising second leg awaits at the Etihad in three weeks, time enough for Pep Guardiola to solve some of the lingering issues beginning to set in. The back four doesn’t quite seem to work right now, and has now gone five games without a clean sheet.

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Erling Haaland missed one good chance but the overarching problem was that City were so rarely able to get the ball to him. Even Guardiola, whose initial game plan had succeeded so resoundingly, looked frozen as his side ceded the advantage, keeping a jaded-looking first XI on the pitch while Phil Foden and Julian Alvarez grimaced on the bench.

With Kevin De Bruyne out through illness, Guardiola deployed the system he normally uses in these situations: Kyle Walker pushed high to provide width and crosses, Mahrez tucked in a little, Bernardo Silva deeper to provide control alongside Rodri. Ilkay Gündogan – captain here – pushed up very high, almost as a second striker, almost certainly an attempt by Guardiola to pin back the dangerous Leipzig midfield.

Above all it was a team built for stability, for patience, for slowly tightening the screw. And there is a kind of imperial menace to City when they are feeling games out like this: like a band of burglars casing the joint, examining the escape routes, forensically scanning the edifice for weakness. Almost half an hour passed without a chance worthy of the name. But Guardiola was gradually overloading those midfield areas, sending Mahrez and Jack Grealish on central forays, sending Gündogan wherever he wanted to go, waiting for the mistake.

It arrived from Xaver Schlager, forced to make one stressful decision too many and coughing up the ball in midfield. Grealish devoured it. Gündogan executed the neat flick. Mahrez did the rest. And as much as City had deserved the goal Leipzig, with their disjointed appearance on the ball and inability to find the telling final pass, had also to a large extent invited it.

Quietly, Grealish is beginning to make more and more sense in this Guardiola side. At times during his first season he looked stuck on that left flank: a dribbling treadmill, constantly in motion but never really going anywhere. Now his first and second touches are more dynamic. He is forming a fluent working relationship with Gündogan. He puts in a hell of a defensive shift. And slowly, the numbers are turning in his direction.

Leipzig were a good deal better after the break. Benjamin Henrichs arrived on the right flank and immediately added forward thrust, missing a wonderful chance to equalise. André Silva powered around the outside and forced a sharp save from Ederson.

And from front to back there was just a little more bravery from them on the ball: the courage to step up and commit, to invite the collisions, to start asking questions. At the other end, Haaland ran through on goal and put his shot about five yards wide. Sensing there was a storm to be weathered, Guardiola knelt on the edge of his technical area in supplication.

Nervous energy was now spreading through this team like chickenpox. Walker conceded a needless corner, generating the sort of pressure vortex that City are normally so good at creating themselves. Eventually Marcel Halstenberg hung a speculative ball over and Gvardiol rose titanically to nod it in. Over in the opposite corner of the stadium City’s fans stood in grizzling silence at this new unwelcome predicament, perhaps wondering if Lord Pannick might have done a better job of heading away the cross.

It might have been better still for Leipzig, who brought on Christopher Nkunku with a quarter of the game remaining and had a few openings in the final minutes, while also weathering intermittent spells of City pressure.

They can travel to Manchester not just with the knowledge that City can be hurt, but that they can be rendered passive too. They actually enjoyed more possession in the second half. For City, and for Guardiola, this is that rarest of things: a situation that is not entirely in their control. – Guardian