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– I am very happy on his behalf – VG


GLIST: Erling Braut Haaland scored twice against West Ham at the London Stadium on Sunday evening.

LONDON (VG) Erling Braut Haaland excelled in his Premier League debut, but was annoyed that two goals did not turn into a hat-trick. After the match, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola drew a parallel between the jærbow and perhaps the greatest footballer of all time, Lionel Messi.

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– I am very happy for him. Now the debate is over. I know he will score goals. He was born to score goals. He did it in Salzburg, he did it in Dortmund and hopefully he will do it here, says Guardiola to VG and around 40 other media present at the London Stadium.

In an interview with Sky Sports, Haaland called it “crap” that he stopped at two goals in his Premier League debut against West Ham. A few minutes later, Guardiola arrived in a storage room under the main stand at the London Stadium which has been converted into the stage for the managers’ press conferences. The Manchester City boss answered questions for just over eight minutes. Six of those minutes were about Haaland’s performance and statements.

Guardiola likes the fact that the 22-year-old did not seem completely satisfied with being replaced after 78 minutes and thus missed the chance to score more goals.

– That’s very good. I have been lucky enough as a manager to coach Messi. When he scored two, he wanted three. When he scored three, he wanted four and so on. The top players are never satisfied. They are always hungry. They want more and more and more, says the City manager who led Barcelona in the most successful period in the club’s history from 2008 to 2012.

One week after Guardiola defended Haaland’s performance in the Community Shield final against Liverpool, the Spaniard was happy that the Bryne man had been shown what is in him. Only when Haaland obtained a penalty kick after 34 minutes, which he dispatched in the goal himself. Then when he went on a sparkling backroom run after just over an hour and scored alone with goalkeeper Alphonse Areola.

– Erling scored his first two goals. It is important to him and to us. He’s a good threat. He is a new weapon we have now. He won’t solve all our problems, but he will add something to the team that we didn’t have before, says Guardiola, who also took a small jab at Haaland’s critics.

– Last week he was not good enough to adapt to the Premier League. Now he is on a par with Thierry Henry, Alan Shearer and Cristiano Ronaldo, jokes the 51-year-old.

– What we want is for him to be happy. He is a guy with incredible talent. He scores goals. But we want to add something to his game to make him a better player. He should not only score goals, although that is very important. We will give him something more.

– How do you feel about his self-confidence?

– I don’t know him very well yet, because he has only been here a month. But I know how he handled a lot of criticism this past week. He was very calm and trained very well, says Guardiola.

Before this season, Riyad Mahrez has stated that he wants to take penalties for Manchester City. When Haaland was brought down by Areola in the first half, the winger was not on the pitch.

At the same time, it didn’t seem like there was any doubt in Haaland’s mind about who would take the penalty, as he ran after the ball almost before referee Michael Oliver had pointed to the 11-metre mark.

– The way he took the ball and wanted to take the penalty… Then I said: “I like this.” He is direct. I’m sure he would have punched his teammate in the face if anyone had tried to take the ball away from him. That’s a good signal. Because you have to be ambitious and have that mentality, says Guardiola, who describes the team’s performance as “exceptional”.

Kevin De Bruyne assisted the Norwegian on goal number two. The Belgian ball distributor saw Haaland running in the back room and found him with a lovely pass.

– If he plays like today, it will be good. Although he didn’t score last week, he was in four or five good positions. That’s how it should be, says De Bruyne in the press zone in London – a few minutes after Haaland himself went straight to the player bus after completing the interviews with the TV rights holders.

Next Saturday, Bournemouth await at home at the Etihad Stadium.

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