Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola believes that their Champions League failures are down to their defense, not Erling Haaland. He scored five goals as City thrashed RB Leipzig 7-0 on Tuesday evening to advance to the quarter-finals with an 8-1 aggregate triumph. Guardiola has been on a quest to win the Champions League with the club but so far has fell short, losing in the semi-finals last season after being ousted in the final by Chelsea the previous year. But City manager Pep Guardiola insists it hasn’t been a lack of Haaland, who has 39 goals this season, in his team that has been the issue.
“Always we have scored goals here. Against Real Madrid, we scored four goals. Against Monaco, we scored six goals. We scored four goals here against Tottenham. The issue isn’t that we don’t score goals. The problem is that we conceded silly goals in the past. We give them to them. We usually give them as gifts,” Pep Guardiola said about the Champions League failures. “One of the reasons in this tournament is the build-up, although playing the four central defenders in this manner does not imply that you are a defensive squad. Many find it tough to comprehend. Nathan [Ake] has been so focused for 90 minutes, so steady in his brain. Ruben [Dias] and Manu [Akanji] are rock solid here. As well as John [Stones]. That is what we need in this competition because of the chances they had today, which we gave them. The procedure with Edi [Ederson], we have to be careful. We must do it, but we must proceed with caution.”
Haaland has now beaten Manchester City’s 94-year record for most goals scored in a season, breaking Tommy Johnson’s 1929 record. This season, the 22-year-old has five hat-tricks in all competitions, three more than any other player in Europe’s big five leagues.
“Well, there is a lot. And, after scoring a hat trick, I usually make a substitute after 65 minutes,” he added. “His life would be uninteresting if he had achieved this milestone [getting a double hat-trick] at the age of 22 or 23. Now he has an objective to do it in the future. Here, there, and everywhere. So that is why I made the substitution.”
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