Leipzig v Man Utd: Champions League football predictions & free betting tips

Free football tips, best bets and analysis for RB Leipzig v Manchester United in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Where to watch

BT Sport 2, 8pm Tuesday

Best bet

Manchester United
1pt 13-8 Betfair

Team news

RB Leipzig
Konrad Laimer (ankle), Lukas Klostermann and Benjamin Henrichs (both knee) are injured and Dayot Upamecano is suspended. Hee-Chan Hwang (Covid-19) has not featured for almost three weeks.

Manchester United
Luke Shaw (hamstring) is back in contention but Edinson Cavani and Anthony Martial (both knocks) join Phil Jones (knee) on the sidelines and Fred is suspended.

Match preview

Manchester United have developed a winning habit on their travels and they have a good chance of defeating Leipzig in their crunch Champions League meeting at the Red Bull Arena.

The Red Devils would have preferred to wrap up a top-two finish before their matchday six trip to Germany but Group H always looked likely to produce a competitive three-way scrap for qualification and it hasn't disappointed with three heavyweight teams locked together on nine points.

PSG were runners-up in last season's Champions League and Leipzig reached the semi-finals in only their second year in the competition.

Leipzig have had to absorb the summer departure of star striker, Timo Werner, who joined Chelsea, but they bounced back to defeat Atletico Madrid 2-1 in a Champions League quarter-final and are third in this season's Bundesliga, having drawn 3-3 away to leaders Bayern Munich on Saturday.

Julian Nagelsmann's side are still scoring plenty of goals (21 in ten Bundesliga fixtures) and hold the only 100 per cent home record in the division.

They also have an unblemished home record in the Champions League group stage following victories over Istanbul Basaksehir (2-0) and PSG (2-1) but will almost certainly need to keep that going if they are to reach the round of 16.

A draw would be enough for Leipzig in the unlikely event that PSG lose at home to Istanbul Basaksehir but Nagelsmann will only have eyes for victory and needs his team to play a lot better than they did when losing 5-0 at Old Trafford on matchday two.

Their defeat away to United was a lesson for Nagelsmann, who made attacking substitutions – bringing on attackers Marcel Sabitzer and Justin Kluivert for defender Benjamin Henrichs and holding midfielder Kevin Kampl – and watched his team concede a flurry of late goals.

It is imperative that Nagelsmann strikes a better balance with his team selection because there are huge risks attached to opening up against a United team boasting a battery of pacy attackers.

Marcus Rashford helped himself to a hat-trick against Leipzig on matchday two but Mason Greenwood was also on target and both are likely to have a role to play in Germany.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer deployed the speedy duo in the second half at West Ham on Saturday and it worked a treat as United shrugged off a miserable opening 45 minutes to run out comfortable 3-1 winners.

Given their counter-attacking capabilities, it is perhaps understandable that Solskjaer's side look much more comfortable on their travels.

They have triumphed in 12 of their last 13 away games – including five of them when conceding the first goal – and look overpriced to advance to the last 16 with another three points.

Key stat

Manchester United have won 12 of their last 13 away fixtures.

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