Erling Haaland He is without a doubt the striker of the moment. In the week he dispatched with five goals against RB Leipzig in the Champions League, and now, he scored his sixth hat-trick of the season against Burnley in the FA Cup quarter-finals. After the third goal, Guardiola decided to replace him, a situation that he alluded to in the post-match interview.
At minute 63′ of the match, the DT of the citizens decided to admit Cole Palmer instead of the Norwegian, who minutes ago had completed his hat-trick. In this regard, Pep joked referring to certain rumors that went viral during the week. “I replaced him so that he wouldn’t break Messi’s record in the FA Cup. I try to punish my players, that’s my intention. I know he doesn’t care, he’s so positive in his life, he’s optimistic, he never complains.”.
Obviously, the phrase is loaded with irony, firstly because Messi has never played in the FA Cup, and also, it alludes to the game against Leipzig in which City won 7-0. In that match, Androide scored his fifth goal at minute 57, and at minute 63 he left the field to give entry to Julián Álvarez. “When I left I told Pep that I would have liked to score the sixth goal, a double hat-trick” expressed the scorer between laughs when the duel ended.
The situation led to the viralization of the theory that the change was for Haaland did not break Lionel Messi’s record, since the Argentine also scored five goals in the same Champions League round of 16 match, being the only two in history that have achieved it in that instance. One more goal for the Norwegian would have left La Pulga in second place in the aforementioned record.
Taking his statements into account, Guardiola evidently took the situation as something funny and, possibly, silly. Going back to his statements after the win against Burnley, the former Bayern Munich coach mentioned that what his striker had done “It’s remarkable, he scored eight goals in four days. He played 11 years in Barcelona and scored eleven goals. He is incredible” commented.
Another who also highlighted the goalscoring talent of the former Borussia Dortmund was Vincent Kompany, current manager of Burnley and former captain of Manchester City, where he had very outstanding seasons. “What everyone sees are his goals, his movements in the area. He has the athleticism and pace to always be on the end of those balls. He has a good sense of where the ball is going to land. He is in the right place for his development.” expressed the Belgian.
In this way, Haaland already has 42 goals in this season. Also, still have 14 games remaining insured for the remainder of the season, where you can continue stretching your figures, with four possible additional games in the event that his team manages to advance to the phase in the Champions League and in the FA Cup.
