Pep Guardiola, in his statements after the “seven” of Manchester City against Leipzig, idolized Erling Haaland and explained his reasoning in the decision to change him before he could score a sixth goal.
Erling Haaland was… the equalizer in Manchester City ‘s 7-0 win over Leipzig , scoring five goals in 35 minutes . Pep Guardiola substituted him in the 63rd minute and gave him no time to become the first player with six goals in a Champions League match .
In his statements after the game, the Catalan coach explained his reasoning, saying that “If he had achieved such a milestone at the age of 22, he would be bored in his future”.
Among other things , Guardiola said: “We scored a lot of goals and Erling was amazing but everyone was excellent. He scored five goals in 60 minutes, if he had been on the pitch for 90 minutes I don’t know what he would have done. He is an amazing guy with tremendous talent, strength and mentality, he is a serial winner. Here we scored 4 goals at Real, 6 at Monaco, 4 at Tottenham and all the times we were out, it was because we conceded goals.
Right now, the guys are defending really well. Of course having a weapon like Erling in this event is important. Kevin De Bruyne is also unreal. The pace he played at tonight, the movement, is the Kevin we know and we haven’t seen as much of this season. He is unstoppable.”
