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UCL: Man City Can’t Put All Pressure on Haaland – Pep Guardiola

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2 years ago

September 5, 2022

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Pep Guardiola warned Manchester City that if they become too reliant on Erling Haaland they won’t end their quest to win the Champions League.

City start their latest European campaign with a trip to Sevilla on Tuesday night, four months after their heart-breaking semi-final exit to Real Madrid last season.

Guardiola said Haaland, who has scored 10 goals in his first six Premier League games, has improved his team but insists the Norwegian will not be able to fire City to Champions League success on his own.

“If we put everything on Erling’s shoulders,we are not going to win the Champions League,” Guardiola told a news conference on Monday. “We try to help him score goals. We convinced him to come here as he felt we did not have strikers and he could play with us.

“I understand everyone talks about Erling, but I have three or four new players and I want them to settle. I hope he can help us, but we won’t win just because of him and we don’t lose just because of him. He has a special quality and maybe he can solve the problems we have, definitely, but we have to play good as a team as well.”

Haaland has fond memories of Sevilla after scoring four times as Borussia Dortmund knocked out the Spanish side 5-4 on aggregate in the last-16 in 2021.

His Champions League record already reads 23 goals in just 19 games and he will line up against a Sevilla team who have made a poor start to the season after failing to win any of their first four games in LaLiga.

“City without Haaland was already an exceptional team,” said Sevilla coach Julen Lopetegui. “They have players of the highest level in every position and now with Haaland they are stronger and have more alternatives.

“We are playing against a rival of a very high level, they are among the best teams in the world, more so because of the new option they have in Haaland, which makes them more complete, but we are concentrating on ourselves.”

Guardiola will be without Kyle Walker and John Stones for the game at Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium after the pair were ruled out with injuries. Aymeric Laporte is also missing and Guardiola says it is “lucky” the club moved quickly to sign Manuel Akanji from Dortmund on deadline day to provide cover at the back.

“Kyle is not much, but not sure if he will be ready before the international break. Muscular injuries,” Guardiola said. “John arrived [at training on Monday] not feeling good. That’s why we are lucky we brought Manu to the club, we brought another player in this position.

“I think mainly with this incredible schedule they cannot sustain it for a long time.”