RB Leipzig vs Manchester City Champions League preview: All you need to know

RB Leipzig vs Man City: Champions League preview

Champions League - Game Week 4

4 Nov 2026 - 15:00

Red Bull Arena Leipzig

Man City travel to the Red Bull Arena in Leipzig for a Champions League fixture following successive Premier League defeats. Can Enzo Maresca steady the ship? Kickoff is at 16:00 EST and 18:00 GMT on Wednesday, 4 November.

Maresca feeling the heat at City?

City have lost back-to-back Premier League games against Aston Villa and Brighton, meaning champions Arsenal have usurped them at the summit. Maresca lamented an individual error from Matheus Nunes in their defeat to the Seagulls at the weekend. City started this UCL campaign with a 2-0 win at Porto, followed it with a 2-4 home defeat to PSG and then a 5-1 thumping of AEK Athens. Norwegian goal-machine Erling Haaland has four goals in the UCL this season so far. He has 12 goals in eight career appearances against Leipzig, so he will go into this one with confidence.

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Leipzig finding their feet under Demichelis

RB Leipzig have reason to feel confident, having won five home matches on the bounce across all competitions and not conceding a single goal in that sequence. However, they've taken heavy defeats on the road this season, notably at Como and Real Madrid in the Champions League (both 4-1 scorelines) and got thumped 6-1 away to Bayern Munich in mid-October. Still, Martin Demichelis will be hugely encouraged by their home form, which has seen them score 19 times in their last five matches. Overall, they've notched 10 home wins on the bounce, including a 1-0 success against PSV in this competition.

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Key stats & injury news

• Maxime Estève missed Leipzig’s win at Schalke on the weekend. Man City's only injury absentee against Brighton at the weekend was Antoine Semenyo.
• Erling Haaland has 12 goals in eight career appearances against Leipzig.
• Haaland's compatriot Antonio Nusa has a goal and four assists in Leipzig's last three outings.

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Team news & squads

RB Leipzig vs Manchester City Probable lineups

4-2-3-1

RB Leipzig

RBL

Formation

Manchester City

MCI

4-2-3-1

M. VandevoordtW. OrbanD. RaumC. LukebaR. BakuC. NkunkuB. GrudaN. SeiwaldN. El AynaouiA. NusaR. CruzG. DonnarummaR. LewisA. KhusanovJ. GvardiolR. DiasR. CherkiP. FodenE. FernandezE. AndersonAllanE. Haaland

Manchester City

MCI

4-2-3-1

RBLMCI

Starting XI

• 26

  M. Vandevoordt
  1

  G. Donnarumma
• 4

  W. Orban
  82

  R. Lewis
• 22

  D. Raum
  45

  A. Khusanov
• 23

  C. Lukeba
  24

  J. Gvardiol
• 17

  R. Baku
  3

  R. Dias
• 28

  C. Nkunku
  10

  R. Cherki
• 10

  B. Gruda
  47

  P. Foden
• 13

  N. Seiwald
  17

  E. Fernandez
• 21

  N. El Aynaoui
  5

  E. Anderson
• 7

  A. Nusa
  37

  Allan
• 40

  R. Cruz
  9

  E. Haaland

Manager

• 
  M. Demichelis

• 
  E. Maresca