Guardiola justifies with humor his replacement of Erling Haaland

Manchester City crushed Leipzig on Tuesday night at the Etihad Stadium (7-0), aided by dubious refereeing and a fiery Erling Haaland who scored five goals. But many criticized Pep Guardiola's decision to take the Norwegian out in the 63rd minute when he had the opportunity to break the record of Luiz Adriano and Leo Messi by becoming the first player to score six goals in a Champions League match.

"I told Guardiola that I would have liked to score a double hat-trick (one in the first half, one in the second), but what could I do? I had to go out," said the Norwegian to the microphone of BT Sport after the game. Present at the press conference, Pep Guardiola was asked about this statement of his striker and justified with humor his choice to have replaced him.

"If he beats this record at 22 or 23 years, his life will be boring"

"If he breaks this record at 22 or 23, his life will be boring," Guardiola joked. "He would have no more goals to achieve in the future. Whether it's here or elsewhere. That's why I replaced him. More seriously, I didn't know about Messi's record against Leverkusen and if I replaced Erling, it's because I'm used to making substitutions when the game is over because I want all my players to be able to participate."

Beyond his quintuple, Guardiola appreciated Haaland's overall performance against Leipzig: "Today he scored five goals, but touched 30 to 35 balls. That's what we are looking for. When you're involved in the game, defensively and offensively, and the ball comes to you, you're smarter, more accurate when it comes to scoring. Sometimes it's his fault, sometimes he doesn't move. For example, at Crystal Palace (Haaland scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot), he didn't move, I told him 'you didn't play well today'. Other times it's our fault, like in Leipzig where we couldn't find him. But sooner or later it's going to come, we're discussing it, we're working on it."