Pep Guardiola is not happy with Erling Braut Haaland. On Saturday, with a 2-0 lead against Leeds United, Manchester City received a penalty ten minutes before the end after a foul by Pascal Struijk on Phil Foden. To the surprise of many, it was not Haaland who stood behind the ball, but Ilkay Gündogan. The midfielder was responsible for City’s two goals earlier in the game, but Guardiola made it clear that he wanted Haaland to take the penalty.
“You have to take it, you have to take it!” Guardiola told Haaland on the sidelines before Gundogan fired his penalty against the post. Leeds, which until then had nothing to crumble in the milk, suddenly came back to 2-1 a minute later through Rodrigo, who scored from a quick break. City’s victory was therefore suddenly in jeopardy, although the leader of the Premier League managed to hold on in the final phase. “It shows how kind and generous Erling is,” Guardiola added Sky Sports back to the remarkable moment. “If it’s 4-0 with ten minutes to play, okay. But at 2-0? Erling is our best penalty taker now, so he has to take it.”
3-0 ? 2-1 ? No hat-trick for Gündogan, who misses a penalty. Not much later, Rodrigo scores the tying goal. ?? https://t.co/4nDMcQTTBg#ViaplaySportNL #ViaplayFootball pic.twitter.com/oicsIP0I7f
— Viaplay Sport Netherlands (@viaplaysportnl) May 6, 2023
“This is a businessGuardiola continued. “This was not a situation where we could forget that. If it is 1-0 or 2-0, the regular taker has to take the penalty.” Haaland is the undisputed penalty taker of this season. the Citizens and partly because of this, the Norwegian already has 35 competition hits. However, Haaland played a particularly unfortunate game on Saturday. He missed several imposed chances and hit the post and crossbar, among other things. It was all the more remarkable that the Scandinavian gave Gundogan the chance to make his hat-trick.
However, Haaland’s kind gesture did not come completely out of the blue. In the first half, Gündogan secured the lead for the team from Manchester with a placed shot into the short corner. Ten minutes before the break it was again a hit for the German international, who this time found the far corner. Despite Rodrigo’s missed penalty and connecting goal, City held on, making the leader’s lead over closest pursuers Arsenal four points.