Manchester City lost a game as well as a first-choice player for the first leg of the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 when it fell 2-1 to RB Leipzig on Tuesday.
Kyle Walker was sent off for a petulant kick on Andre Silva in the loss with already-advanced City trailing 2-1 in Germany.
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Pep Guardiola said that the offense, which sent Silva off-balance, was “definitely” a red card and seemed to seethe while saying that he’d keep his reaction to Walker inside the dressing room.“Kyle Walker is an important player for us and it is unnecessary to lose him like this,” said Guardiola afterwards. “I hope he learns from this. The red card hurts us, especially for the round of 16. It’s a red card, definitely. I’m not coming here to say what happened in the dressing room.”
Walker will now miss the first leg of City’s next UCL tie. His performance on the day had already been poor, leaving Zack Steffen out to dry on Dominik Szoboszlai’s breakaway goal on a three-save day for the USMNT backstop.
Riyad Mahrez scored off an Oleksandr Zinchenko assist after Leipzig had gone up 2-1 through goals from Silva and Szoboszlai, but City still out-possessed the hosts and took more shots than Leipzig.
City maintains the seeded spot in Group A despite PSG’s defeat of Club Brugge, and Leipzig moves into the Europa League.
RB Leipzig vs Manchester City final score, stats
RB Leipzig 2, Man City 1
Goals scored: Szoboszlai 24', Silva 71', Mahrez 76'
Shots: Leipzig 9-13 Man City
Shots on target: Leipzig 5-3 Man City
Possession: Leipzig 44-56 Man City
Pep Guardiola on player commitment
“It was a good performance and we did everything but could not score. We defended well, they defended deep and, of course, their counter-attacking is always dangerous with the quality they have and, unfortunately, we could not control them from scoring but it is football.”
Kyle Walker gets a straight red and will miss the first leg of the #UCL round of 16 game in February 🟥 pic.twitter.com/9sYuHbcjoj
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) December 7, 2021
