Erling Haaland had three touches in the first half. He finished the night with the goal that won it, which is roughly the shape of his entire relationship with RB Leipzig. The Norwegian slid in Elliot Anderson's low cross on 78 minutes to settle a 3-2 win in Germany and take his record against them to 13 goals in nine appearances, more than he has scored against anyone else.
Manchester City needed it. They arrived on the back of consecutive Premier League defeats, and for long stretches here they looked like a side still carrying that with them.
Two leads, two giveaways
Leipzig were the better team early on. Antonio Nusa's effort from range squirmed through Gianluigi Donnarumma's grasp and landed on the roof of the net, and Christoph Baumgartner curled narrowly wide. City had the ball without doing much with it, then took the lead anyway when Castello Lukeba got his feet in a tangle and turned Nico O'Reilly's harmless cross into his own net.
The favour was returned straight after the interval. Donnarumma made a good save from Baumgartner, then left his near post exposed seconds later and Ridle Baku squeezed in from a tight angle when everyone in the ground expected a low cross. Enzo Fernandez restored the lead on 57 minutes, arriving to power a header home from an inch-perfect Iliman Ndiaye delivery, which ended a run of seven games without a goal or an assist for the £125m midfielder. Within three minutes Nusa had levelled again, drilling low across Donnarumma into the bottom corner.
The goalkeeper question will not go away
Sky Sports' Lewis Jones was blunt about it afterwards, writing that Donnarumma is "doing little to convince that he is the reliable last line of defence" and calling the Baku goal a strange one to concede. BBC Sport rated him a 4. David Raum nearly punished another moment of hesitation when his free-kick rattled the crossbar.
Enzo Maresca was not interested in piling on. "Tough game in some moments. We controlled quite well but some moments we struggled," the City head coach said. "Champions League, Germany away, it's tough so happy with the three points. They are well organised, they were aggressive and dangerous with the wingers. We needed to be careful on transition."
Haaland wants more
His captain was less forgiving of the performance. "Not sure how many touches I had today, not the most, but what is the most important is that I managed to help the team to win," Haaland said. "I think we need to step up a bit. When we were 1-0 up I think we needed to go at it, go for the second goal and then the third. That's what we have to do."
He had warm words for Anderson, who made more tackles than any team-mate, won more duels than any player on the pitch and supplied the winner. "He has had an amazing start to his City career and that is what you expect. It is not easy to come in, you need to adapt and new players and a new coach, so he has been impressive. Respect." Jeremy Doku, on for Phil Foden just after the hour, blazed over from close range in injury time, and Rayan Cherki clipped the woodwork in a frantic finish. City move up to seventh in the league phase table.
Match facts: RB Leipzig 2-3 Manchester City, Champions League league phase, Wednesday 4 November 2026. Scorers: Lukeba own goal, Baku, Fernandez 57, Nusa, Haaland 78. City are seventh in the league phase table.
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