It’s noticeable that Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola cautions restraint again in his post-match interviews while Erling Haaland strikes a different tone when it comes to the both of them addressing particular sensitive topics.
Among the numerous outstanding things that Erling Haaland did on Tuesday night, his post-match interviews were also spot on.
Speaking to American broadcaster CBS after his five-goal haul in the second leg of the Champions League match against RB Leipzig, the Manchester City striker described the 7-0 win as a statement performance cum result indicating that he had been brought to the club to win the Champions League.
“They didn’t bring me in to win the Premier League because they already know how to win it, so you can read between the lines”, he said.
If that statement seem not at all out of line, that is precisely the kind of message that Guardiola has been most reluctant to verbalize publicly. Despite a sixth successive Champions League quarter-final, the manager is still harping about being a failure.
The idea that he will not get credit for his achievements as City manager unless he wins the Champions League has been brought up a number of times, and was again before this match when he expressed his incredulity at being told by media he was at City to win them the Champions League when he arrived in 2016.
Guardiola was questioned after their 5-0 win over Sporting Lisbon at this stage of the competition last year if he accepted it would be seen as a statement result, and was soon talking about how they had gone all the way the previous year but “we lost the final and it was like ‘what a f****** failure this team is'”. Then after their recent 1-1 draw with Leipzig, he spoke out against criticism of the result and said it was not a reality to expect City to win 5-0 in the Champions League knockouts – only that they actually won 7-0 in the second leg decider this season.
Obviously the Cityzens are in unquestionably better form now than they were last month when they headed to Leipzig as part of a sapping run of five consecutive away games.
Guardiola is also well accustomed to playing down the hype and expectations around his team – ‘what the ****’, he had sworn to himself, when asked mere months into his first season in England if he could win the Quadruple – because he both needs to keep his players in check but also is old enough to know that things do not go your way. Particularly for City in the Champions League, there are many painful reasons not to get carried away.
All said and done, it is still truly refreshing to hear the unbridled optimism of a world-beating 22-year-old whose answers are undeniably blunt as his finishing is sharp. City trouncing RB Leipzig improves their standing for the quarter-final draw on Friday because their most recent result and performance have sent tremors of anticipation and excitement across the continent for all of the teams still remaining in the competition.