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Pep Guardiola denies Man City missed player like Erling Haaland in previous Champions League campaign.
Despite scoring five goals against RB Leipzig, Pep Guardiola denied Manchester City missed Erling Haaland’s goals in prior Champions League failures.
The big Norwegian shattered several records on Tuesday night as City thrashed Leipzig 7-0 to go to the quarterfinals of the Champions League. He scored five goals in the span of an hour.
Guardiola praised Haaland as a “fantastic talent,” but he declined to blame City’s failings in prior seasons on a lack of goals, choosing instead to point out his team’s prior defensive shortcomings.
“It was a really good performance from minute one until the end from everyone,” the Spaniard told BT Sport after the match. “We played very good with and without the ball. We scored a lot of goals. Erling [Haaland] was amazing but everyone was exceptional. Five in 60 minutes. Incredible guy, huge talent. Power, mentality, he’s a serial winner.”
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But when asked whether City had missed those goals in previous seasons, Guardiola responded: “I don’t think so. The reason why [is that] we concede a lot of goals [against] the opponent. We scored four goals here against Real Madrid, six against Monaco, four against Tottenham. A lot of the time we were out because we conceded a lot. Right now these guys they defend really well. We had with Sergio before, this instinct to score goals.”
The question of whether Guardiola’s team can win the first Champions League in the club’s history has been raised despite it being so early in the elimination stages.
It’s been a while since I’ve done this, but I have a feeling that I’m going to have to start doing it again. It will be interesting to see if they, along with Guardiola, can maintain their composure under pressure, with or without Haaland.
Soon after learning who they would face in the quarterfinals, Guardiola’s team hosts Burnley in the FA Cup, where they will play fellow graduate Vincent Kompany on Saturday.