Coach Pep Guardiola is confident that striker Erling Haaland will cut the deadlock circuit to help Man City defeat Inter, thereby winning the Champions League for the first time.
In his first season at the Etihad Stadium, Haaland played explosively with 52 goals in 52 matches in all competitions, breaking many records in the English Premier League and FA Cup. However, the Norwegian striker has only scored one goal in the last six matches and has failed in the last three matches against Real in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final, Brighton in the Premier League, Man Utd in the FA Cup final.
In a press conference on June 9 before the Champions League final, Guardiola denied that Haaland’s form had fallen at a crucial time. “I’m not here to discuss Haaland’s average scoring rate. If you doubt that, you’re a loner,” he said harshly. “I have no doubt, tomorrow Haaland will be ready to help Man City win the Champions League.”
When asked for his advice to aspiring young coaches, Guardiola replied that the secret to his career success was coaching top-class players. “There was Lionel Messi then and Haaland now. That’s my success. I’m not kidding,” said the 52-year-old coach, emphasizing the importance of teamwork. “Successful coaches cannot directly score goals, but need to have a strong and quality team.”
Having won the Premier League and FA Cup, Man City is just one match away from the historic treble at Ataturk Stadium today. Guardiola admitted it was a dream scenario, but warned the players to focus, play according to the plan, not get caught up in Inter’s play. He said: “We have to be patient. The most important thing in this kind of game is to think that we are drawing 0-0 and losing. We have to be consistent, catch up, and be calm in bad moments,” he said. bad. Being 1-0 down or 1-0 up, whichever is the case, settle down.”
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