Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola defended his decision to substitute Erling Haaland in City’s 7-0 drubbing of Leipzig in their second leg of the Champions League last sixteen tie at the Etihad Stadium yesterday.
Having become the youngest (22 years and 236 days) and the fastest (25 games) player to score 30 goals, Erling Haaland was on the verge of breaking Lionel Messi’s record.
out of City’s seven goals, Haaland scored 5 of those to become only the third player to score five goals in a single Champions League game after Luiz Adriano and Messi.
The Norwegian seemed determined to break the record, but Guardiola who won two Champions League trophies with Messi at Barcelona subbed the striker in the 64th minute. His explanation? To protect his talisman from the effects of over achieving success at an early age as life can become meaningless without any set goals to fight for.
“If he achieves this milestone at 22, his life would be boring. He has something to aim for. Now he will have the target to do it in the future here, and everywhere.”
Guardiola who is a renowned Messi fan said, before further explaining that in reality, he was only being protective of his player as he didn’t want him to be judged or criticized basing on that Leipzig display.
“He scored five goals. The problem is Everytime we don’t score two or three, he will be criticized. This is reality.”
Haaland must’ve been disappointed by his boss’s decision. He appeared willing and determined to add to his day’s tally which would’ve seen him break the record. While speaking to BT sport after the game, he said:
“I told him (Pep Guardiola) I would love to score a double hattrick but what can I do?”
Manchester City went on to beat Leipzig 7-0 with more strikes coming from IIkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne to eliminate the German outfit 8-2 on aggregate.
