Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola and Erling Haaland
Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola has revealed that he substituted Erling Haaland during their 7-0 win over RB Leipzig to prevent the youngster from breaking football great, Lionel Messi's record.
Haaland, who scored five goals in 57 minutes, equalled Messi's record becoming the second player to score 5 goals in a UEFA Champions League knockout game.
He was subbed off in the 63rd minute and was replaced by Argentine striker Julian Alvarez.
Reacting to the early sub, Guardiola explained that Haaland will not be inspired if he breaks the record at age 22, therefore, due to the substitution he will be inspired to better it in the future.
"I know Haaland equalled Messi's record, of course, I remember! It's incredible he did it in 60 minutes", tells Sky ????????
Erling is young... he has an incentive of beating Messi's record in the future. If he'd have achieved that at 22, he would be bored in his future!".
Haaland's goals inspired Man City to ease past RB Leipzig 8-1 on aggregate in the round of 16 encounter.
He scored three in the first half and added a double in the second half while IIkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne scored one each to complete the memorable night at Etihad stadium.
Manchester City have progressed to the quarter-finals and will wait until the draw on Friday to know their opponent in the last eight.
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