LEIPZIG: Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola joked he could throw caution to the wind to finish off Leipzig in the Champions League by fielding “nine strikers”.

City were held to a 1-1 draw in Germany on Wednesday in the first leg of their last 16 tie with Riyad Mahrez’s opener cancelled out by a header from Josko Gvardiol, one of the breakout stars of the Qatar World Cup as the cornerstone of Croatia’s miserly defence.

“I didn’t want to come here and lose 4-3. It will have to be more open in Manchester,” said Guardiola who coached Bayern Munich to Bundesliga titles in each of his three years in Germany and said City “could not compete” with the speed of German teams.

“We don’t have the team to compete with them with a lot of transitions, they are better than us and they are faster than us, except Kyle (Walker) and Erling (Haaland).

“The pace they have, we don’t have it.” Guardiola added: “Maybe in the second leg I will be crazy and decide to play with nine strikers. But I’ve coached in this country and I analysed Leipzig and I needed this type of control.”

The City manager gathered his team together on the pitch for an impromptu motivational session after the final whistle in an attempt to lift their spirits.

“They had their heads down, I told them ‘Why are your heads down, put your heads up,” the Spanish manager told the post-match press conference.

“It was a really good game the game you played. If people don’t like it, it doesn’t matter, you played the game the way it should be played.” The City manager said the Champions League “used to be quite easy”, but is now “such a demanding competition”.

“All of the teams in all of the leagues are really strong.” Leipzig manager Marco Rose revealed how his half-time talk, which “started quietly and ended up a little bit louder”, pushed his players to stop playing City’s game.

“I told them ‘what are you doing, coming into a game like this and standing deep — that wasn’t the plan.”

After Otavio’s dismissal for a second yellow card following a poor challenge on Hakan Calhanoglu, Inter poured forward in search of the winner and Lukaku headed Nicolo Barella’s cross against the post before knocking the rebound past Porto keeper Diogo Costa.

Rose said he was confident ahead of the second leg in Man­chester on March 14, but admitted “to go to City, we’d rather have a 3-0 advantage to feel better.” “We can take plenty out of the game so that we can not play another first half like we did today.”

City’s star striker Haaland suffered for a lack of service, with the Norwegian clearly missing ill midfielder Kevin de Bruyne.

City dominated possession in trademark fashion for the first quarter of the match, but failed to carve out any opportunities against a well-drilled and structured home side.

The breakthrough came when Jack Grealish easily intercepted a weak Xaver Schlager pass on the edge of the box and played the ball through the middle for Mahrez to finish.

Rodri should have doubled their lead three minutes later when he was left completely unmarked at the far post but his header sailed wide.

The hosts, who were outplayed in the first half and only had their first shot on target in stoppage time, came out swinging after the break.

They should have equalised when Benjamin Henrichs was left completely alone in the box but sent his low shot wide.

City keeper Ederson then palmed away an Andre Silva effort from close range before also denying Dominik Szoboszlai in the 69th as Leipzig poured forward.

The Germans were rewarded a minute later when Marcel Halstenberg floated a cross into the box and defender, Gvardiol showed his attacking flair, launching himself above the City defence to head in the equaliser in the 70th minute.

City held on as Leipzig searched for a winner, meaning both teams head to Manchester on an equal footing ahead of the return fixture.

LUKAKU FIRES INTER PAST PORTO

In the night’s other first-leg fixture, substitute Romelu Lukaku grabbed an 86th-minute goal to earn Inter Milan a 1-0 victory over Porto in a tight last-16 tie.

Porto midfielder Otavio was sent off 12 minutes from time and Belgian striker Lukaku took full advantage to boost Inter’s bid to qualify for the quarter-finals of Europe’s premier club competition for the first time in 12 years.

“We played well against a very physical side. There are regrets that we failed to convert some of the first half chances, while we ran some risks after the break on the counter-attack, but the substitutions helped,” Inter manager Simone Inzaghi told Amazon Prime Italia.

The win ended Inter’s run of four successive first-leg defeats in Champions League knockout-stage ties and sent the home crowd into raptures as they chanted the name of Lukaku who has endured an injury-plagued campaign.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2023