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Pep Guardiola tips Erling Haaland to emulate Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi

Vaseline August 24, 2024

Pep Guardiola has backed Erling Haaland to score goals on a par with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo after the Manchester City striker extended his “ridiculous” record with a hat-trick against Ipswich.

The 24-year-old scored his tenth three-pointer in the sky blue as the reigning Premier League champions bounced back from Sammie Szmodics’ surprise opener for Kieran McKenna’s promoted side.

Haaland’s penalty quickly cancelled that out and after Kevin De Bruyne punished an error from Aro Muric, the marksman put City further ahead at the Etihad Stadium.

The Tractor Boys went all out after a wild first 16 minutes, but the Norwegian international did not let the match ball be taken away and fired in the 4-1 two minutes before the end.

“I think he feels better than last season,” Guardiola said of Haaland.

“After the treble he struggled to cope with it, and maybe not too many holidays. I remember him saying at the beginning ‘still tired, still a bit exhausted’.

“This season for nothing, relax and really come on strong. We talked a bit in the States (during City’s pre-season tour), like I didn’t like some things and he changed his mind.

“Of course he can’t play all the games until the end of the season, but you know how important he is, the numbers, the goals and the goals, it’s incredible.”

When asked, Guardiola already has as many Premier League hat-tricks – seven – as Manchester United’s all-time top scorer Wayne Rooney, and the City manager said: “He did it in Salzburg, he did it in Germany. Yeah, the numbers are ridiculous. Ridiculous.

“So he can compete with Cristiano and Messi in terms of goals. The numbers are incredible for his young age, the number of goals, and he is an incredible threat for us.

“We’re really, really happy to have him, and hopefully he can stay here for many, many years to come. That would be really good for us.”

Ipswich’s first ever visit to the Etihad Stadium ended in a heavy defeat, but manager McKenna was proud of his players’ performance against a team chasing a historic fifth consecutive Premier League title.

“We started fantastically and scored a great goal in transition,” said the Town manager.

“Probably exactly the goal we wanted to score today, and we knew we could score with their high line and Sammie and Omari (Hutchinson) getting after them, and he finished it well.

“We start off great, but then we lose the game in a matter of five minutes. We can learn some important lessons from that, and I’m sure we’ll succeed.

“The first goal is a penalty, while it is not a very dangerous situation. Of course, a one-on-one, but you know that you have to face them at this level.

“But being disciplined and not giving away the penalty is really important and a 1-0 lead that we could have held on to for 10, 15 minutes I think would have been the basis to play a very competitive game today.

“I think everyone was happy with the plan we had and the way we executed it in the first few minutes.

“But 1-0 turns into 2-1 in a matter of seconds, more than minutes, and the feeling of the match changes completely.”

McKenna noted positives in the way Ipswich regained control and showed resilience, and felt they should have been awarded a penalty just before half-time for a foul by Savinho on Leif Davis.

“I think, in my eyes, we had a clear penalty that we should have taken at 3-2,” he said.

“I know City could have had different goals, but I think we should go into the game 3-2 up. It’s really hard to understand why it wasn’t given.”