MY ACCOUNT
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says no player in world football can compete with the standards set by Erling Haaland at his age as he challenged the striker to continue improving.
Haaland made history on Sunday by becoming the first player to score hat-tricks in three successive home Premier League matches as City thumped rivals Manchester United 6-3.
The Norway international has 17 goals in 11 appearances in all competitions since arriving at the Etihad Stadium from Borussia Dortmund, where he tallied a prolific 86 goals in 89 games.
Aged 22 years and 47 days, Haaland last month overtook Kylian Mbappe as the youngest player to net 25 Champions League goals, also doing so in the quickest time (20 games).
And Guardiola believes “the numbers speak for themselves” when it comes to Haaland, who will be looking to add to his growing tally in Wednesday’s Champions League Group G tie with Copenhagen.
“At his age no one can compete with him. No one,” Guardiola said. “We are very happy to have him. In training he is the same – sometimes he does some spectacular things. We are incredibly happy to have him.”
Haaland is averaging a goal every 48 minutes in the Premier League, which is the best rate of anyone to have scored more than once in the competition’s history.
He has found the net from 42 per cent of his shots (14 goals from 33 attempts) – the best conversion rate of any player with at least 20 efforts since such records were first recorded in the 2003-04 campaign.
Phil Foden, himself aged just 22, scored a hat-trick of his own in the derby thrashing of United and received strong plaudits from his manager.
“He’s an exceptional player who has grown up a lot,” Guardiola said at Tuesday’s pre-Copenhagen press conference.
“He’s reliable, so intense and clever in everything he does. He can also play every three days. Both he and Haaland know they can do better and hopefully they can do it.”
City’s win against United was their fourth in a row in all competitions as they extended their unbeaten run to 11 matches.
The reigning English champions are top of their Champions League group thanks to wins over Sevilla and Borussia Dortmund, whereas Copenhagen have just one point and have yet to score.
Indeed, the Danish side have only scored one goal in six Champions League matches against English opponents, with that goal the winner from Marcus Allback in a 1-0 win over United in November 2006.
But with many predicting a routine home victory on Wednesday, Guardiola admits he faces a challenge ensuring his players maintain their high standards no matter who the opposition.
“That’s the problem. After the game versus United, it’s the biggest issue,” said Guardiola, who confirmed Kyle Walker will play no part due to injury.
“Hopefully I can show them to pay lots of attention. It’s not easy to break the structure [Copenhagen] had against Sevilla. I know exactly what they are able to do.
“They have quality. From goal-kicks, when they have the ball, they don’t just play it long. They have courage to play and we have to force them to play long balls. I was surprised how many things they do.”
