Christopher Nkunku's Hatrick was not enough to save RB Leipzig on the night as they lost 6-3 to Manchester City in their Group A opening encounter at the City of Manchester stadium.
Manchester City, who had five different goal scorers and benefited form a Nordi Mukiele own goal won their 50th Champions League game in just 91 outings, the second fastest team to reach this landmark after Real Madrid.
The Cityzens got to a lively start as a early as the 16th minute when Nathan Ake gave them a deserved lead from a Jack Grealish corner. It was the England defender's first ever goal in the competition.
12 minutes later, their lead was doubled through an unfortunate own goal by Mukiele. Fine work from Kevin De Bruyne to beat his marker, before firing a decisive cross into the area. Mukiele got his head to the ball, but cleared it into his own net.
Leipzig should have pulled one back just 10 minutes afterwards. Former Manchester City player, Angelino ran unto a through ball to cut back into Nkunku, whose effort was blocked for a corner by Ake.
The Germans eventually pulled one back with three minutes to play in the first half. A fine ball by Emile Forsberg to the far post was kept alive by a Mukiele header, which allowed Nkunku to head into the bottom corner.
Man City would restore their two-goal lead in the last minute of added time in the first half from the penalty spot. Ferran Torres met a cross from Joao Cancelo with a header, but his effort was blocked by the arm of Lukas Klostermann. Riyad Mahrez fired home the penalty into the top right corner.
The hosts were presented with another scoring opportunity immediately after the restart, but Torres hit his effort straight at Peter Gulasci in goal.
The visitors would punish their hosts for a slight lack of concentration as they pulled one back in the 51st minute. Daniel Olmo crossed into the box and the ball was met by an unmarked Nkunku at the near post.
City would not take long to get another goal as they got another five minutes later, this time, Jack Grealish himself finding the back of the next from a curling effort from outside the box.
It could have been five for City in the 66th minute after a beautiful footwork from Terran Torres to beat Gulasci. VAR review, however, showed that he was an inch offside in the build up to the goal.
It was looking to be a ping-pong affair as Leipzig got their third of the night, with Nkunku meeting a through ball from Forsberg to complete his Hatrick. It must have felt weird to score a Hatrick and still have your team losing. Mixed fortunes, you can say.
Guardiola's men would not accept their visitors coming back at them every time as they looked to extend their lead and responded two minutes later with their fifth goal. This time, a long range effort into the left bottom corner from Joao Cancelo, as he received the ball from Ilkay Gundogan.
It went from bad to worse for Leipzig as their quest for a comeback became harder when former Manchester City defender, Jose Angelino got his second yellow card of the night to make his team finish the game with ten men.
Substitute, Gabriel Jesus put the icing on the cake with a goal five minutes from time. Leipzig failed to clear a blocked Mahrez shot and the ball wriggled its way to Jesus at the far post, who thumped into the roof net to make it six for the hosts.
Concluding Thoughts
Being last season's losing finalists must still hurt for Manchester City and they have restarted their quest to return to that stage in great fashion.
The Champions League is the only trophy missing from their cabinet and there's no better time to win this than a year after losing in the final.
For RB Leipzig, it was another performance that flattered the quality in the team. They have now conceded 10 goals in their last two matches, having let in four against Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga over the weekend.
It's now a more herculean task for them to finish in the top spots in a group that also consists of French giants, Paris Saint Germain, who like Manchester City have their sights set on the Champions League trophy as the only title that has eluded them.
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