Erling Haaland was benched for Man City’s Champions League defeat at Real Madrid on Wednesday night, after the Norwegian picked up a knee injury in the last outing against Newcastle United.
This season’s Champions League dream is over for Man City. Travelling to the Bernabeu on the back of a 3-2 defeat in the first leg was always going to be a mammoth task for Pep Guardiola’s misfiring City side, and that it proved to be.
Real Madrid beat Man City 3-1 on the night with Kylian Mbappe scoring a hat-trick, and Nico scoring his first goal for City late on.
Erling Haaland‘s exclusion from the XI, but his inclusion on the bench, certainly raised a lot of eyebrows with many wondering; if he’s fit enough to be on the bench, why isn’t he fit enough to start? The 24-year-old didn’t even come off the bench in the end.
So far this season, Haaland has scored 19 goals in 25 Premier League games for Man City, as well as being the joint-third highest scorer in the Champions League with eight in nine appearances in the competition this season.
- READ MORE: Jose Mourinho shares his answer when asked who is better – Sir Alex Ferguson or Pep Guardiola
Jamie Carragher verdict on why Erling Haaland didn’t feature for Man City vs Real Madrid
Speaking on CBS before the game, Jamie Carragher gave his verdict on Haaland’s absence from the XI, with a rather comical joke about Haaland’s longstanding battle with Real Madrid centre-back Antonio Rudiger.
The German was again in robust form against City. He stood up to just about everything the Cityzens had to throw at him. No doubt, he would’ve given Haaland another enticing battle on Wednesday. And Carragher joked that the battle against Rudiger might have played a part in Haaland’s absence on Wednesday night.
The former Liverpool man said: “So let me work this out. Haaland’s gone to the manager this morning and said ‘I’m not fit’. Do you think that’s got something with Rudiger? Because Rudiger’s playing?
“I never went to see the manager in the morning and said ‘I’m not fit’… Are we saying this injury is Rudigeritis?”
Thibaut Courtois thinks Erling Haaland would be a great fit for Real Madrid
There’s no doubting that Haaland remains a top player in world football. His goals record speaks for itself and if he was on the pitch, fit and firing against Madrid, then the result on Wednesday night could’ve been a lot different.
Ahead of the game, Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois gave his verdict on Haaland and suggested that he’d score a lot of goals playing int eh Real Madrid side.
He said: “I think also like a striker like Haaland and our team would score a lot of goals, because we are very offensive.”
With City misfiring of late, there’s always going to be underlying and speculative uncertainty about players’ futures, especially those like Haaland who could easily walk into a lot of XIs in Europe, possibly even Real Madrid’s.
Right now though, Haaland and everyone at Man City will be focussed on the upcoming Premier League match against Liverpool on Sunday.
