April 08, (THEWILL) – Pep Guardiola has hailed Erling Haaland as a “pure goalscorer” on par with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
As THEWILL reported, Haaland scored twice as City won 4-1 at Southampton to stay within five points of English Premier League leaders, Arsenal. The brace took the Norwegian’s goal tally for the season to 44, equalling the most ever by a Premier League player in a single campaign.
“The second goal was amazing,” said Guardiola. “His talent is really good. We need him. As a top scorer, we lived two incredible decades with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, but he is on that level. He scores a lot of goals.” Guardiola was also quick to praise Southampton for their performance in the first half, as they largely kept City at bay.
City’s win puts the pressure back on Arsenal, who are heading to Anfield to face Liverpool, a ground where they have not won since the 2012/2013 season. Guardiola said he would prefer to be in the position Arsenal are in, in terms of the EPL title race. “I would like to be in the position Arsenal are in. I would love that. It is what it is,” he said.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
