Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has shared an injury update over Erling Haaland after he had not taken up against Real Madrid due to a knee problem.
Haaland was forced last weekend in the final phase of the 4-0 victory of City over Newcastle and Guardiola was hopeful that he could appear against Madrid. The attacker made the trip to Spain and was called on the couch, but he suffered a setback after City arrived in the Bernabeu.
Haaland did not warm up before or during the game, because City was hit 3-1 thanks to a Kylian Mbappe-Hattrick and collapsed from the Champions League after losing the play-off tie 6-3 in total.
Speaking after the game, Guardiola revealed that Haaland was unable to walk down the stairs without hurting his knee and it is still to see whether the striker will be able to meet Liverpool on weekends.
“Erling tried to train yesterday, but he hurt himself to Newcastle. I believe that the images we made are fine,” Guardiola said. “But it hurt when he walked when he went down the stairs. Yesterday, this morning he told me that he was not ready that he was not feeling well.
“The plan was to try, to try to get a better result than in Manchester as long as possible. We give a goal so early that the injury of John (stones) is a bit of what happened this season.
“We could not respond to the Mbappe movement. It was more difficult. The best team won, they deserve it. In his condition this was not the best option.”
It marked the third time in four years that City has lost a knockout draw to Madrid, but Guardiola suggested that this defeat was the only one who earned. “In previous seasons, when we played excellent, it hurt more than today,” he added.
“I felt that in the past three seasons we were better than they were, but this time they were better.” In the meantime, Carlo Ancelotti has faith in the opportunities of his party to win a 16th Champions League this season.
“We are in the fight for Champions League,” he said. “We have a fantastic quality in advance, but we have had trouble finding the right balance defensive. It seems that we have found it and we have the opportunity to compete until the end. We had a very good game in all aspects – attacking, defensive, without the ball. “
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