RB Leipzig - Man City: Haaland vs Gvardiol

Two young talents of the 2000 generation are the brightest stars of world football at the moment. Haaland has been noticed for a long time and exploded after joining Man City. Gvardiol was one of the best players at the 2022 World Cup as he helped Croatia reach the semi-finals.

Haaland has scored 31 goals in 27 appearances for Man City in the Premier League and Champions League this season. The brilliant performance made the Norwegian striker's representative confidently value him at a billion dollars. But the 22-year-old striker is under pressure due to lack of fuel when Man City is held to a draw by Nottingham Forest. Haaland was criticized for two unbelievable mistakes that caused the home team to drop points in the thrilling championship race with Arsenal.

Former striker Thierry Henry believes that Man City's play is more predictable with Haaland. He commented that juniors are the type of players that need to be pumped by teammates, so if the opponent catches the passing directions to Haaland, Man City will have difficulty. Former centre-back Jamie Carragher agrees with this statement, saying that Haaland can only show 60% of his ability as when playing for Dortmund at Man City.

Today, Haaland also did not have the most important partner in attack, when Kevin De Bruyne was dropped due to illness. This season, the Norwegian striker has scored seven goals from De Bruyne's passes. Haaland's rate of converting De Bruyne's chances into a goal was 41.2%.

"I understand exactly what Henry means when he says Man City are easier to guess because they try to pass to Haaland. But making it harder for the team to catch cards is not Haaland's business alone. It's about how we develop the ball to create a creation. To do that, we need De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan or wingers to create more directions into the box, not just give that task to Erling, "said coach Pep Guardiola. student.

Before the match, Rose gave good words to her former student. He said Haaland has improved a lot and become a world-class player since joining Man City. However, the 46-year-old military leader also thinks that RB Leipzig has reasons to be confident when receiving Man City. "I had plans for the team and disabling Haaland was one of them," Rose said.

To stop Haaland, Leipzig will need the certainty of Gvardiol and the Croatian midfielder has made a strong statement before this match. He said: "We won 4-1 at Dortmund last season when they had Haaland. Maybe he was wanting to leave so he was not happy to play. I think Haaland was much better than at the time. We've seen what he's done in the Premier League this season and I'm looking forward to playing top-class players."

Man City excel in every aspect in this match. They are classified as championship candidates, have stronger forces and achieve high performance while Leipzig is only fifth in the Bundesliga. However, the German team still impresses when it comes to second in Group F, just one point behind Real Madrid.

The two teams faced each other in the Champions League group stage last season. At that time, Man City won 6-3 at home. That was the beginning of Leipzig sacking coach Jesse Marsch. The second leg took place without an audience due to Covid-19. Leipzig won 2-1 but the result did not mean much because Man City went on and the German club had to go down to play in the Europa League.

In addition to De Bruyne, Man City does not have a pair of central defenders John Stones and Aymeric Laporte. The home team is missing Peter Gulacsi, Dani Olmo and Abdou Diallo but will welcome the return of Konrad Laimer and especially Christopher Nkunku after three months of convalescence with a knee injury. Nkunku scored a hat-trick against Man City at the Etihad last season.