Speaking to the media after Manchester City\u2019s thumping 6-3 win over Manchester United in the Premier League, Pep Guardiola hailed hat-trick hero Erling Haaland and compared the Norwegian to another of his former protege Lionel Messi.<\/p>\n
Messi was one of the chief driving forces in Guardiola\u2019s all-conquering Barcelona that laid waste to opposition relentlessly. And in Haaland, the Catalan tactician seems to have found another weapon of mass destruction as witnessed by the 22-year-old\u2019s form this season.<\/p>\n
Indeed, just 11 matches into his spell at Man City, Haaland has already plundered 17 goals across all competitions, that includes three Premier League hat-tricks, with the one against United on Sunday being the latest and perhaps the sweetest.<\/p>\n
After the game, Guardiola was asked if he expected Haaland to score in each game like he once did with Messi during their time at Barcelona.<\/p>\n
In response, the Manchester City manager replied (h\/t SPORT): \u201cYes, the difference is that Haaland needs all his teammates, Messi did it alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guardiola has always maintained that he thinks Messi is the greatest player of all time and once again he has underlined that stance with his latest statements.<\/p>\n
Having left Barcelona last year, Messi could return to Spotify Camp Nou next summer when his contract with Paris Saint-Germain expires. There has been interest from MLS while PSG remain keen on extending his contract.<\/p>\n
But, Bar\u00e7a are also working hard behind the scenes to bring their former captain back to the club for one last dance.<\/p>\n
As for Haaland, the 22-year-old, who had been linked with Barcelona and Real Madrid, among others, in the summer, is taking the Premier League by storm.<\/p>\n
And even though he has joined recently, Manchester City wish to renew his contract at the earliest possible so as to stave off the interest from Real Madrid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Speaking to the media after Manchester City\u2019s thumping 6-3 win over Manchester United in the Premier League, Pep Guardiola hailed hat-trick hero Erling Haaland and compared the Norwegian to another of his former protege Lionel Messi. Messi was one of the chief driving forces in Guardiola\u2019s all-conquering Barcelona that laid waste to opposition relentlessly. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-barcelona"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":492,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions\/492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}