ERLING HAALAND’S goalscoring achievements at the age of 22 are unmatched by any other player according to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, who urged the Norwegian to keep improving.
Haaland has scored 17 goals in 10 competitive games for City since joining from Borussia Dortmund, where he struck 86 times in 89 matches.
He has scored a hat-trick in each of City’s past three home Premier League games and became the quickest player to reach 25 Champions League goals with an acrobatic winner against Dortmund three weeks ago.
“At his age, no one can compete with him,” Guardiola said on Tuesday, on the eve of his side’s home match against FC Copenhagen. “The numbers speak for themselves.
“Inside, on the pitch, in the locker room, we see things that are not in the stats that make us feel happy to have him here.”
Another 22-year-old, Phil Foden, also scored a hat-trick as City put local rivals Manchester United to the sword in a 6-3 win on Sunday.
Foden is reportedly close to signing a new contract to tie his future to the club where he came through the academy.
“Due to his performance during these years, of course, we want him to stay,” said Guardiola.
“He’s an exceptional player, he grew up a lot. Already he is many years with us, he’s reliable in terms of his physical condition, he’s so intense in everything, every three days he is able to play.
“Both (Haaland and Foden) know they can do better and hopefully they can do it.”
After beating Sevilla and Dortmund in their opening two group games, City can close in on the Champions League last 16 with another victory over Copenhagen on Wednesday.
But Guardiola is wary of taking the Danish champions lightly after the euphoria from City’s derby win.
“We have to be careful,” he said. “We have to come back to reality. If we can make nine points in three games we will be so close to the next stage.”
Rodri could return after missing the United clash with a calf strain, but Kyle Walker is expected to miss out.
Great game City keeper had a blinder!!! 1300 for an U19 game on a Wednesday night and there were 400 at Richmond Park for Pats v City on Monday…laughable
Be interesting to see what the attendance would have been if the Liverpool Man U game was on tonight instead of Monday.
True but even tonight City v Barcelona on tonight too
Very few irish ppl support Man City compared to Utd and Lpool. Just goes to show that irish ppl are event junkies. We love special occasions like these or going over to england to see a game, but when it comes to the average humdrum LOI fixture ppl are less enthusiastic.
City Barcelona is no comparison to Liverpool United for the Irish football fan
Are you saying there are more Irish fans supporting Man City and Barca than Man Utd and Liverpool??
U19 and U17 leagues were a fantastic idea well done cork
Great support. Well done Cork.
Is there a group stage or is it just a continous 2 leg knockout?? Btw fair play to cork
They play Roma in a 2 leg play-off and the winner goes to the group stage
Ah sound. Hope they get through
The winners of the next leg play the runners up of the Champions league groups, then the winners of that game play the winners of the champions league groups.
Well done Cork.
No Kenny Browne in sight Darren you’d have been delighted
Yes….. You have a lot of decent footballers there. No room for chubby checkers anywhere! Posh boy….you weren’t the lad on about goal difference between Dundalk and Cork defences were you yesterday? Less said about the MASSIVE +3 goals between teams the better.
@Darren Sheils: No it wasn’t me anyway haha
Great stuff from City.I’ll have to book the holiday to Rome.
That’s a tight net. Well done CCFC
Great support and an unbelievable result! Fair play Cork, they’ll continue to be a top side with this young talent coming through!