Man City boss Pep lavishes praise on star striker Erling for scoring in 2-0 win over Napoli and becoming fastest player to reach 50 Champions League goals
Manchester City’s Erling Haaland celebrates his goal against Napoli in the Champions League on Thursday. Pics/Getty Images
Erling Haaland became the quickest player to reach 50 UEFA Champions League (UCL) goals in Manchester City’s 2-0 win over 10-man Napoli. Haaland reached his half century in Europe’s elite competition in just 49 appearances after scoring in the 56th minute before Jeremy Doku (65th min) ensured Guardiola’s men got their quest for European glory off to a winning start. The record was previously held by Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, who scored 50 goals in 62 games.
“The numbers speak for themselves and how fortunate we are to have him [Haaland],” said Guardiola. The Norwegian moved to 12th in the all-time UCL scoring charts and prompted Guardiola to compare his goal-scoring feats to two of the modern greats — Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
“Along with the two monsters of the past 15 to 20 years Ronaldo and Messi, Erling is there. In terms of goals he is unbelievable. In that rhythm [he can break the record] if he can play for 10-12 more years, then absolutely,” said the Spanish coach, alluding to Ronaldo’s record tally of 141 goals.
Pep Guardiola
Meanwhile, there was to be no fairytale return at the Etihad for Kevin De Bruyne. His night was cut short after 26 minutes as Napoli manager Antonio Conte took him off to in order to bring on Mathias Olivera to bolster his defence after Giovanni Di Lorenzo’s red card in the 21st minute.
“I was very sorry I had to make that substitution, I also knew by taking him [De Bruyne] off we were going to miss some of the things he can give us. But I didn’t see any other option. He understood why I had to make that decision,” said Conte.
Were it not for the excellence of Napoli custodian Vanja Milinkovic-Savic and City’s own desire to take their foot of the gas in the closing stages, the scoreline could have been much worse, which Conte admitted as much. “We didn’t want to come out of this humiliated, because it could have happened. They could have pulled our pants down and lost 5-0 or 6-0 but we avoided it,” he said.
OTHER RESULTS
>> Frankfurt 5-1 Galatasaray
>> Club Brugge 4-1 Monaco
>> Bayer Leverkusen 2-2 Copenhagen
>> Sporting CP 4-1 Kairat
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