The ex-Man City man looking to prove himself tonight

With Liverpool still reeling from Manchester City dumping them out of the title race two weeks ago, a Champions League tie against Leipzig tonight offers some respite, but there will be a stark reminder of the impending league champions bombing down the left wing tonight.

Signed from Deportivo La Coruna in 2014 at the age of just 17, Angeliño was yet another exciting youngster coming off the Spanish production line, the kind that every club in the world were after at the time, and Man City fought their way to the front of the queue.

After loan spells in the US and back in Spain, Angeliño experienced his first full season at NAC Breda in the Netherlands, where he drew attention from PSV, who signed the left back two seasons ago on a five-year deal, and he then took his game to a whole new level.

One of the Eredivisie’s stand out stars during 2018/19, City quickly exercised their buy-back clause to bring Angeliño back into the fray at the Etihad, but after just 12 games at the start of last season where he looked out of his depth, he was soon shifted off to Leipzig last January, and the rest is history.

Recently resigned on a permanent deal for just €16 million after a year of sublime performances in East Germany, maybe Pep Guardiola had seen enough to surmise Angeliño wasn’t his type of player, but under Julian Nagelsmann, the now 24-year-old has become one of the Bundesliga’s best attacking outlets.

The difference in mere months has been completely staggering, and is one of the best examples yet of Nagelsmann's impressive reputation to improve players other world class managers have given up on.

Dominating the left side of the pitch, often in a 3-1-4-2, Angeliño has been able to rival the likes of Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold for production over the past year, and will likely be seen tonight running at the latter at full pelt.

And while the defensive side of his game may be the reason Guardiola decided to give up on the player, Leipzig have the Bundesliga’s best defence this season, conceding just 18 goals in 21 games with Angeliño a key cog in their system.

His best performance yet in professional football may have been against Manchester United this season, scoring and assisting to dump the Red Devils out of the Champions League group stages at the final hurdle. 

And while City continue to hurt United and Liverpool in the Premier League, it could well be one of their former players who does it again in Europe tonight.