UEFA Champions League Round of 16 2nd Leg Preview: Manchester City vs RB Leipzig

You can view all second round previews here!

AC Milan vs Tottenham Hotspur

Chelsea vs Borussia Dortmund

Club Brugge vs Benfica

Eintracht Frankfurt vs SSC Napoli

Inter Milan vs Porto

PSG vs Bayern Munich

Real Madrid vs Liverpool

Where Things Stand

It was of course eventful in every way. RB Leipzig held Manchester City to a 1-1 draw at home ground in Germany, Inter Milan secured a 1-0 home victory over Portuguese FC Porto, Bayern Munich came out on top against Paris Saint German in arguably the ‘biggest, colossal tie of the season", Chelsea fell to a 1-0 loss at the hands of Borussia Dortmund.

Club Brugge conceded a 2-0 loss to Benfica, Milan were victorious over Tottenham Hotspur, their Italian counterparts and Serie A leaders, Napoli posted a 2-0 away win over Eintracht Frankfurt. And last but not the least, in fact the greatest, Real Madrid pulled big rabbits out of their hats to defeat Jurgen Klopp"s Liverpool 5-2 at the Anfield Stadium.

All sixteen teams have a short break to take. Some have to get their backs into grinding hard for a spectacular result if progression into the quarter-finals of the competition is anything to go by. Some, speaking of clubs like Madrid, simply have to defend a stellar first-leg result, play out a decent game. But phase-two would be upon us in less than a week"s time. Liverpool make the return trip to the magical, spell binding Santiago Bernabeu. Messi, Mbappe and the rest of the PSG pack touch down in Munich as they look to write their home errors wrong and keep their Champions League hopes alive.

We"re trusting this to be more scintillating, intriguing and exhilarating than it was in the first. And so, we delve into, half hastily, half detailedly, the match-ups slated for the next two weeks and how exactly we see them pan out.

BIG DISCLAIMER: The predictions are not to be taken score for score, verbatim. They"re just meant to give a picture of the final outcome we expect in the match-ups.

Manchester City vs RB Leipzig

RB Leipzig came away with a 1-1 draw at the Red Bull Arena thanks to Joško Gvardiol"s 70th minute header after Riyadh Mahrez"s first half strike off a defensive miscalculation had initially given Guardiola"s side the lead.

Well, RB Leipzig are one side known for being undaunted, with stubborn resilience and doggedness in the face of challenges as big as Manchester City. Notably in the delayed 2019/20 season, they had a decent run to the semi-finals, ousting both Tottenham Hotspur and Atletico Madrid en-route.

Does this mean Marco Rose"s side would take it all in the second leg at Etihad, take the fight to The Citizens and dump them out of the Champions League? Not exactly.

They may have chances alright, but it"s kind of hard to see past a Manchester City quarter-final.

Leipzig would put up a really great fight no doubt, but on the night, allt hings being equal, we should see Guardiola"s tactical genius play out and the boys" attacking prowess get highly rewarded. For us, it"s a win for Manchester City.

Prediction: Manchester City 3-1 Leipzig.

Players to watch for:

Manchester City: Erling Haaland, Riyadh Mahrez.

RB Leipzig: Christopher Nkunku

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