With Julian Alvarez benched, Manchester City's lineup against RB Leipzig

Manchester City faces RB Leipzig as a visitor on matchday 2 of the UEFA Champions League. Pep Guardiola's team is coming off a difficult week in which they have certainly not had the best of performances, and they have also suffered a significant decline in offensive matters. This is mainly because Erling Haaland seems to not be performing at his best in recent days.

Pep's team has had two consecutive defeats, including elimination from the EFL Cup in one of them. The lack of success is making the current champion of the competition pay hard, shooting up to 23 times to only score one goal in the previous league match (2-1 vs Wolves). Now, the club hopes to return to its best level in a competition that it is certainly very good at. However, the club must go through against Leipzig, a team that is playing well this season.

Although RB Leipzig is a fairly modern team, these two teams have already faced each other 4 times in the top competition. It is true that Pep's men have not yet managed to win at the Red Bull Arena (2-1 and 1-1), but at the Etihad they have decisively crushed the German team on both occasions (6-3 and 7-0). A certainly complicated match is expected in which both clubs are in need of points and could climb important steps at the top.

Manchester City vs Leipzig lineups

"Tomorrow Rodri is going to play the game and then I will give him a rest. He will go to Madrid four or five days before joining the national team during the international break," clarified Pep Guardiola.

RB Leipzig: Janis Blaswich; Mohamed Simakan, Lukeba, Raum, Klostermann; Schlager, Xavi Simons, Seiwald, Emil Forsberg; Poulsen and Openda.

Manchester City: Ederson; Walker, Akanji, Rúben Dias, Gvardiol; Foden, Rico Lewis, Rodri, Bernardo, Grealish; Haaland