Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola has compared the club’s goal machine Erling Haaland to legendary footballers Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi following Saturday’s match.
Haaland scored twice as City beat Southampton 4-1 at St Mary’s Stadium on Saturday, taking his Premier League tally to 30 goals in just 27 appearances.
After bottom the table Southampton, who knocked City out of the Carabao Cup in January, had started well, Haaland nodded home a Kevin De Bruyne cross just before half-time to open the scoring.
Grealish fired in at the second attempt to double the lead in the second half, before Haaland acrobatically volleyed a 30th league goal of the season’s from Grealish’s cross.
Sekou Mara pulled one back for Saints, but substitute Julian Alvarez, on for Haaland, immediately restored the three goal advantage.
Guardiola credited the Norway striker for changing the match against the struggling Saints and compared him to legendary attackers Messi and Ronaldo.
“The second goal was amazing. It is not easy to pick the ball up in the sky and put it on the grass,” he told Match of the Day.
“His talent is really good. We need him. The first half was not our best level but he changed the game. 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. I am very happy with 65 minutes after injury and he helped us again.”
