2023-05-09 07:37:37
The Norwegian holds 51 competitive goals in his debut season for the Premier League leaders. This record commands great respect from Real striker Rodrygo, among others. “We’re talking about all City players, not just Haaland. But Haaland is the one who scares you the most because he scores a lot of goals. You have to be very careful with players like that. We’ll try to stop him,” said the Brazilian, who advanced to the match winner in the cup final with both goals in the 2-1 win against Osasuna on Saturday.
Rodrygo himself is not quite sure how exactly the Reals defensive line around Alaba should succeed. “I don’t think anyone knows that yet because he keeps scoring goals in every game. But I hope he doesn’t score against us. ”The 22-year-old also emphasized that it would be a mistake to reduce ManCity to just Haaland. Josep Guardiola’s squad “always scares. I don’t know if this year more or less. We know it’s a great team. But we are confident of beating them.”
“Wouldn’t have happened to Haaland”
Last year this was spectacularly successful. After beating City 4-3 in the first leg of the semi-finals in Manchester, Real was 1-0 down in the return match in Madrid up to the 90th minute. Then Rodrygo struck twice, in extra time Karim Benzema made it through to the final with a 3-1 win. Everything would have been different with Haaland, Manchester United’s record scorer Wayne Rooney recently speculated in his “Times” column.
“Last year City lost the final in five minutes. That wouldn’t have happened with Haaland because Real couldn’t have played like that,” Rooney wrote, also claiming: “City will not only beat Real in the semifinals, they will sweep them away.” The ex-striker also highlighted the increase in the “Citizens ‘ on the defensive. “City are better in defense and a more patient team.”
Offensive man Bernardo Silva agreed with this view. “Before we thought we had to dominate for 90 minutes, control the last third. But in the Champions League you have to accept that sometimes you have to defend, you have to be consistent, you have to work hard not to allow easy chances,” explained the Portuguese. Coach Guardiola, meanwhile, was trying to ensure that his club was not pushed into the role of favorites.
Guardiola is still missing a big throw with City
“All the clubs in the world feel that you have to beat Real Madrid if you want to win the Champions League,” the Catalan insisted. Guardiola has won the premier class twice so far, but the victories with FC Barcelona (2009, 2011) are relatively long ago. At Bayern and so far also at ManCity, the star coach went away empty-handed. Guardiola has already won eleven titles with the “Citizens”, including the championship four times. The long-awaited triumph in the premier class was not yet there.
The big hit could succeed in the coming weeks. In addition to the Champions League, City is also aiming for the championship title and the FA Cup. In the cup final it is against Manchester United, in the Premier League the defending champions need a maximum of three wins from their remaining four games. Real, on the other hand, has won the cup since last Saturday, but things are looking bad in the league with five rounds to go and 14 points behind FC Barcelona. Should the record winner of the most important European Cup competition win the Champions League again, it would be the 15th triumph overall, the sixth in nine years.
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