Erling Haaland scored the winner as Manchester City beat RB Leipzig 3–2 in the Champions League tonight, ending a run of two straight Premier League defeats. City are seventh in the league-phase table with nine points, the BBC said.
The game swung back and forth. City had plenty of the ball without threatening much before Leipzig defender Castello Lukeba slid Nico O’Reilly’s cross into his own net in the 37th minute. Ridle Baku equalised early in the second half, squeezing a shot in at Gianluigi Donnarumma’s near post. Enzo Fernández put City back in front with a header from Iliman Ndiaye’s cross shortly before the hour, but Antonio Nusa levelled again almost straight away.
Haaland won it in the 78th minute, sliding in Elliot Anderson’s low cross. It was his 13th goal in nine games against Leipzig, the BBC said. “I think it is the most I have scored against a club,” he told TNT Sports. He was also critical of his side’s game management. “I think we need to step up a bit,” he said. “When we were 1–0 up I think we needed to go at it, go for the second goal and then the third – that’s what we have to do.”
Haaland praised Anderson, who joined from Nottingham Forest in the summer. “He has been amazing, he has had an amazing start to his City career,” he said. Donnarumma had a harder night. The BBC gave him four out of 10 and said he left his near post exposed for Baku’s goal.
The win followed a 1–0 home defeat by Brighton on Saturday. Ayari scored in the 11th minute after a Matheus Nunes miss, and Bart Verbruggen made seven saves for the visitors. It came days after City had knocked Brighton out of the Carabao Cup on penalties after a 2–2 draw. “We did enough to deserve something more,” Enzo Maresca said. He also played down the slip: “This is not a short run, it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. We need to think about 65 games.”
City are second in the Premier League with 21 points from nine games, three behind leaders Arsenal and two ahead of Brighton. Haaland has nine league goals in nine games. City will be without Antoine Semenyo for about eight weeks with a knee injury, the club said.
Maresca has been in charge since 29 June, when he replaced Pep Guardiola. Off the pitch, City deny the Premier League’s charges against them, and a hearing is expected by January 2027.
City go to Nottingham Forest on Saturday (17:30 GMT). Forest are 19th with six points and have not scored a league goal at home this season, but they have had no midweek game. “A new game in three days so that’s lovely,” Haaland said.
Etihad Stadium, on Ashton New Road in east Manchester (M11 3FF), is the home of Manchester City. It opened as the City of Manchester Stadium for the 2002 Commonwealth Games and was converted for football by digging out the running track and building a lower tier, which is why the front rows sit unusually close to the pitch. After the North Stand expansion, first used at full capacity in 2026 and renamed the Pep Guardiola Stand, the ground holds roughly 60,000. The bowl is fully roofed, so weather is less of a seating decision than at older grounds.
The pitch runs north to south, so the goals sit in front of the two end stands, not the sides. The North Stand (Pep Guardiola Stand) is behind the north goal. The South Stand, which gained a third tier in 2015, is behind the south goal. Along the touchlines, the Colin Bell Stand is on the west, with the players’ tunnel and most of the broadcast cameras, and the East Stand faces it on the opposite side. On the plan above, north is at the top: the white goals are drawn directly in front of those two ends, and the away block is the south-east corner of the South Stand.
Visiting supporters are normally housed in South Stand blocks 113, 114, 213, 214, 313 and 314, entered through turnstiles L1, L2 and L3. Ticket collections, when your club has arranged them, are at the South Stand ticket office next to those entrances, and photo ID is often asked for. You are behind the south goal, high in places, and next to home support, so the noise carries both ways. Stairs in the upper tier are steep and legroom is ordinary Premier League tight. Turnstiles open about two hours before kick-off; arriving an hour early is the usual advice, especially if bags are being checked. Only small handheld bags around A4 size are accepted. A paid bag drop sits by the away turnstiles in the Grey car park. Flags need prior approval from the club safety officer. Under-14s must be with an adult over 18.
The simplest way in from the city centre is Metrolink. The Etihad Campus stop is beside the complex, and the tram from Piccadilly on the Ashton-under-Lyne line takes under ten minutes, longer on a matchday when cars are packed. Piccadilly and Victoria are the useful rail stations. Matchday car parking has to be booked in advance. Visiting coaches and minibuses use the Grey car park opposite the away turnstiles. Walking routes from the tram are well signed, but the campus is large, so follow the South Stand and away-end signs rather than the main City store entrance.
If you are not in the away allocation, the side stands give the cleaner view of how City play. Middle tiers of the Colin Bell Stand and the East Stand sit near halfway and look across both penalty areas. The North Stand is the family end and, since the rebuild, one of the louder home ends, with rail seating in the lower tier. Upper rows behind either goal are the cheaper seats: you see the shape of the game, but the near goal is the one you feel. There are no pillars to hide behind. Lower rows, because they were built below the old ground level, are very close but look slightly flat across the pitch.
Food and drink inside are standard stadium fare, and concourses get busy just before kick-off. The streets around Eastlands are not a pub crawl in the city-centre sense. Many away fans eat and drink nearer Piccadilly or in the Northern Quarter, then tram out. Check your own club’s travel notes for any pub that has been set aside. Home colours are sky blue. Keep away colours sensible in the concourse, and do not expect a neutral walk between the two ends once the ground fills.
Have your ticket on your phone or in hand before you reach the turnstile, and screenshot anything you might need if the signal dips. The South Stand ticket office is the place for duplicate collections, not a general box office for spare seats. City’s own matchday page is the one to trust for bag sizes, prohibited items and last-minute travel changes. The ground itself is straightforward once you are on the right side of it: south goal, South Stand, turnstiles L, and you are in.