Manchester City completed a miraculous second-half comeback to beat RB Leipzig 3-2 and seal top spot in their Champions League group.
Despite sending out a strong team, Pep Guardiola watched his side struggle horribly in the first half as Lois Openda put Leipzig two goals ahead, but City turned the game on its head after the interval.
Erling Haaland and Phil Foden struck to tie things up before substitute Alvarez tapped home a late winner to steer City through to the knockout stages as group winners.
How the game unfolded
Ambitious volleys from Bernardo Silva and Manuel Akanji got things started early on, while Leipzig starlet Xavi Simons sent a nice sight of goal frustratingly wide of Stefan Ortega’s post.
Some route-one stuff handed Leipzig the game’s opening goal 13 minutes in. Lois Openda shrugged off attention from Akanji and collected a long ball from goalkeeper Janis Blaswich, before calmly slotting beyond Ortega.
Ruben Dias headed agonisingly over as City sought an immediate response, but Guardiola’s side appeared a little disjointed in the final third and failed to ask enough questions of the Leipzig defence. Young Rico Lewis blazed over from inside the box, which summed up City’s struggles in the opening stages.
Openda showed no sympathy as he went roaring forward on the counter, this time dispatching of Dias before drilling into the bottom corner to double Leipzig’s advantage at the interval.
City set out to take the game to Leipzig in the second half with the introductions of Jeremy Doku and Alvarez, and the switch in mentality paid off as Haaland found the back of the net ten minutes after the restart.
There was significantly more energy about City’s play in the second half and the equaliser came with 20 minutes to go as Foden turned his way into the box and flashed his composure to strike beyond Blaswich.
Liverpool loanee Fabio Carvalho had the ball in the back of the net soon after but the offside flag, coupled with a quick VAR check, broke Leipzig hearts.
City pushed and pushed for a third goal to seal the win, with Haaland sending a header straight at Blaswich, and they finally poked themselves ahead as Alvarez tapped home from six yards to seal a deserved three points.
GK: Stefan Ortega – 4/10 – For someone who recently made it clear he was not satisfied as a backup goalkeeper, this wasn’t the sort of performance you’d have wanted from Ortega.
RB: Kyle Walker – 4/10 – Spent most of his…
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