Pep Guardiola and Erling Haaland were involved in a heated half-time exchange during Manchester City’s Premier League game against Burnley.
City went into half-time 2-0 up in their Premier League opener on Friday thanks to two goals from Haaland.
The 23-year-old – whose 36 Premier League goals last season set a new top-scorer record – opened the scoring after less than four minutes when he stabbed home Rodri’s knockdown from the edge of the six-yard box.
Haaland doubled City’s advantage 10 minutes before the interval with a stunning effort, riffling Julian Alvarez’s lay-off off the underside of the bar past a helpless James Trafford.
Despite his goals and City’s commanding position, neither Haaland nor Pep Guardiola were happy at half-time.
Just before the half-time whistle sounded, Haaland could be seen berating Bernardo Silva for not playing a pass to him that would have played him in on goal.
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What Guardiola said to Haaland
As the players walked towards the tunnel at half-time, Haaland and Guardiola exchanged words.
The City boss appeared to tell his striker that his demands were not fitting the tempo he wanted City to play with, and that Bernardo was right to not play the pass.
Guardiola said: “With two minutes left you want to make more goals? It’s completely the opposite. That’s not right for the tempo.”
Guardiola was certainly annoyed with Haaland, as he swatted away a TV camera that tried to get up close to the confrontation.
Pep’s reasoning is understandable – Burnley offered plenty of threat going forward, and he was likely concerned that City playing too many risky, direct balls forward would result in them getting caught on the counter-attack.
With two minutes left in the match, the last thing he would have wanted to see was Haaland demanding risky passes from his teammates when he wanted his team to see out the half.