VIDEO: Leipzig’s mistake was immediately punished. Mahrez sent the Citizens into the lead

On the last day of the Champions League semi-finals, Manchester City played Leipzig. The Citizens were the clear favourites and they also didn’t want to leave anything to chance.

Manchester City had to save England’s honour in the Champions League. All the Premier League teams had lost in the eighth round. Tottenham failed to beat AC Milan, Dortmund lost to Chelsea and Liverpool took a beating from Real Madrid.

But even the Citizens went to Germany weakened. The main star Kevin De Bruyne was absent due to illness, as well as John Stones and Aymeric Laporte.

But Pep Guardiola still fielded a strong lineup that dominated the game from the start. The Citizens kept the ball much more on the ball, while Leipzig wanted to threaten from quick breaks, but they were not very successful.

Citizens’ ball possession was as high as 80% at times and such dominance had to be translated into a goal. However, the goal Leipzig scored was almost a gift to their opponents.

Xaver Schlager did not pass accurately in his own half, Grealish intercepted his pass and pushed the ball to Gündogan. The latter let the ball pass between his legs in a duel with Guardiola, found Riyad Mahrez on the edge of the box and opened the scoring with a shot towards the bar.

The Champions League knockout games are looking good for Mahrez. Last season he scored and assisted in the eighth-final against Sporting, and in the semi-final against Real Madrid he also scored 1+1.

He was even better a season earlier. He scored an assist in the eight-final against Mönchengladbach and scored half of the Citizens’ goals in the quarter-final against Dortmund. His top performance came in the semi-final, where he first scored away against PSG in a 2-1 win, then at home he secured a 2-0 win with two goals.

Source: UEFA, Twitter