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Pep Guardiola believes Erling Haaland is a match for Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi as a pure goalscorer after the striker netted his 44th goal of the season on Saturday.
Haaland scored twice as Manchester City won 4-1 away at Southampton to move them within five points of Premier League leaders Arsenal, who play Liverpool later in the weekend.
The striker’s second, a brilliant acrobatic volley, took him to 44 goals in all competitions in his first season in England, now tied for the most ever by a Premier League player in a single campaign alongside Ruud van Nistelrooy (2002-03) and Mohamed Salah (2017-18).
Of those goals, 30 have come in the league, and Guardiola was full of praise for Haaland after the win, comparing his prolific talisman to two of football’s greats.
“The second goal was amazing,” Guardiola told BBC’s Match of the Day. “It is not easy to pick the ball up in the sky and put it on the grass.
“His talent is really good. We need him. The first half was not our best level, but he changed the game.
“As a top scorer, we lived two incredible decades with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, but he is on that level. He scores a lot of goals.”
Southampton, the Premier League’s bottom side, largely kept City at bay in the first half until a crashing header from Haaland put the reigning champions ahead in the 45th minute.
Guardiola acknowledged Saints’ stubborn display in the opening period, saying: “I give a lot of credit to Southampton. Their game plan was really, really good.
“Sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition when you’re not at your level. We were fortunate to be ahead at half-time.
“We had more physicality in the second half. We found the second goal after we won a duel, and after it was easy.”
City’s win puts the pressure back on an Arsenal side heading to an unhappy hunting ground in Anfield, having not picked up three points there since the 2012-13 campaign, when now-manager Mikel Arteta was starting in midfield for the Gunners.
Guardiola would prefer to be in their place, though, in terms of the Premier League title race, saying: “I would like to be in the position Arsenal are in. I would love that. It is what it is.”
