Pep Guardiola has said that Erling Haaland is more bothered about Manchester City winning than he is scoring goals.
Haaland played a key role in City’s 2-0 Premier League win against Newcastle on Saturday, but unusually for the striker he didn’t find himself on the scoresheet.
A superb solo effort from Phil Foden gave City an early lead, before Bernardo Silva finished off a brilliantly-worked team to end Newcastle’s second-half resurgence.
Haaland missed a glaring opportunity to score his 34th goal of the season when he headed wide from just a few yards out, and ultimately, he ended up drawing a blank.
His intelligent flick to set up Bernardo’s goal more than made up for that though, as was the way he frustrated Newcastle’s defenders and time-wasted in the closing stages.
The win moved City to within two points of league leaders Arsenal, although the Gunners extended their advantage to five points with a win against Bournemouth later in the day.
While Haaland will have been frustrated with his failure to find the back of the net, supporters at the Etihad Stadium got the sense that the 22-year-old was more than satisfied with how Saturday’s match panned out.
Pep Guardiola echoed those thoughts when addressing the press after the game.
What did Guardiola say?
“He made a brilliant assist and he fought a lot,” Guardiola said when asked about Haaland’s performance, via the Manchester Evening News.
“He’s a guy after the game in the locker room, he didn’t score but we won and he is happy. Look at the way he celebrated the goal from Bernardo. Just take a look.
“When that happens, the body language of these kinds of things, you realise this guy is involved. Of course, he wants to score goals and he will score more. But what he wants is to win. We won the game and still we are there.”
