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Champions League football tips: Goals on the agenda as Manchester City visit RB Leipzig

As Pep Guardiola once again puts his focus on Europe's biggest prize, Tipstrr football pundit Paul Bathurst expects Manchester City's trip to RB Leipzig to provide a feast of attacking football.

Manchester City travel to Red Bull Leipzig in the first leg of this Champions League last 16 tie, with the hosts hoping for a positive result in a tie from which they are heavy underdogs to qualify.

Leipzig are right in the mix of what is setting up to be one of the best title races in Europe, thanks to an awful period of form experienced by champions Bayern Munich.

They currently sit in fifth spot but are just five points behind the top three of Bayern, Borussia Dortmund and Union Berlin, who are all level on 43 points.

Despite losing their best player and creator-in-chief, Christian Nkunku, to injury back in November, Marco Rose's side have managed to grind out consistently positive results.

They have lost just one of their previous six, which was a 2-1 loss at home to fellow title rivals Union Berlin, but solid wins against Stuttgart and Schalke have ensured they stay in the mix.

Nkunku, who has 16 goals this season, is now fit to return after making his comeback in Leipzig's 3-0 win away at Wolfsburg on Saturday.
The Frenchman was back to his best, once again heavily involved and provided an assist for Konrad Laimer for the final goal.

Rose favours a very offensive and dynamic system that requires high energy pressing from all positions on the pitch. 

Rose will have looked at recent Manchester City performances and will have noted that his opponents have conceded as a result of high pressing multiple times recently.
Rodri was caught on the ball in both meetings with Tottenham Hotspur this year, with Dejan Kulusevski capitalising in the first game, while the return game saw Harry Kane open the scoring in what turned out to be the winning goal.

Guardiola will never change his philosophy on football - and why would he?

Arguably the greatest managerial mind in the history of football, the Spaniard's approach is admired universally, and he is credited with pioneering the 'tiki-taka' short passing style which worked wonders in his successful reign at FC Barcelona.

Leipzig are still missing their first-choice goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi, whilst defender Abdou Diallo and forward Dani Olmo are also sidelined.

It is vital that Leipzig take a positive result to Manchester if they are to hold any chance of qualifying from this tie.

This game is likely to be all action with the German side attempting to steal the ball high up the pitch, so should Man City successfully break the press as they so often do, there should be an abundance of space for the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland to exploit.

Both sides should have enough chances to score, and with the quality possessed by Manchester City up front, it is likely to result in the English side scoring multiple times.
Over 2.75 goals appears to be a valuable market entry, whilst higher over lines such as Over 3.5 and even Over 4.5 at larger odds could yield a nice profit.

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