City’s De Bruyne, Laporte and Stones to miss Leipzig tie

Manchester City’s Kevin de Bruyne, Aymeric Laporte and John Stones will miss today’s Champions League last 16 first leg with RB Leipzig, after Pep Guardiola left them out of the squad for the trip to Germany. The City manager said in pre-match press conference de Bruyne and Laporte were both sick and could not be included."Kevin and Laporte – illness,” said Guardiola. "It is what it is during the season unfortunately. Sometimes something happens. Kevin didn’t feel good right after the game against Nottingham on Sunday and yesterday Laporte didn’t feel good, so they’re not going to play.”Also yesterday, Leipzig coach Marco Rose said City still posed a major threat despite the 31-year-old de Bruyne’s absence. "I think Kevin is among the best players in the world. He sees space, he knows space and he’s dangerous in front of goal” Rose told reporters. "A lot goes through him in this team, but he will be replaced by someone world class. Man City work as a team. They are not individuals. A team will be on the field tomorrow, a team which wants to win the Champions League,” he added.The Leipzig-born coach singled out Erling Haaland, who he managed in two stints at Red Bull Salzburg and Borussia Dortmund as a threat. Rose, who admitted to having "a little less hair – and a bit more grey” than in his first stint coaching an 18-year-old Haaland four years ago in the Austrian Bundesliga, said the Norwegian "had gotten much better”."His mentality is insane. When he sees the goal, he goes crazy and will stop at nothing to score. He’s a world-class player for one of the best teams we have.”Sweden forward Emil Forsberg, who has the unfortunate honour of playing for the club side and the national side Haaland has scored the most goals against, said holding back the Norwegian would be a team effort. "Everyone tries to stop him, but you can only stop him – and beat Man City – as a team”Leipzig said Spanish midfielder Dani Olmo would miss the match while France forward Christopher Nkunku was in doubt and would, at best, start from the bench. Guardiola said he hoped Nkunku would be fit enough to play for the Germans, saying "it was a pity that he missed the World Cup.”"Top-class player, we saw last season at home. "Hopefully he’ll be back in Manchester. Always I want to play with the best players in the top sides.”Nkunku – who came off the bench in Leipzig’s 3-0 win at Wolfsburg on Saturday after a three-month break due to an injury sustained in France’s World Cup training camp – could not complete training yesterday. "His muscle had a bit of a reaction after the Wolfsburg game” Rose said of Nkunku, telling the media "we will not bring him on from the start.”"Now we will see however the next 24 hours how the problems develop and whether he can be there at all. It’s a big wish of ours of course.”