Credit: Twitter
Manchester City beat Southampton 4-1 in an exciting Premier League 2022-23 encounter on Saturday at the St. Mary's stadium. Norwegian star forward Erling Haaland scored two stunning goals with one of them being a splendid bicycle kick and the other one being a header to maintain his spot as the top goal scorer in the Premier League with a tally of 30 goals. Following Haaland's brace, Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola compared the 22-year-old with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
City manager Pep Guardiola seemed mighty impressed with Erling Haaland’s performance and heaped praises on the Norwegian in the post match press conference and even compared him with two of the best footballers Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
He said, "We have lived two incredible decades with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, but he is on that level. The second goal was amazing. It is not easy to pick the ball up in the sky and put it on the grass," as quoted by BBC sport.
However, Pep Guardiola placed the 2022 World Cup winner above Haaland and Cristiano, and believed if the former BVB star is compared with the two in the same amount of games, "He is quite similar in terms of Cristiano. I think Messi is a very complete player. Messi can play wherever and can understand the game. Cristiano and Erling, they are a machine reaching that level.
"But Erling knows that the other two guys have dominated for two decades. Not just one year or two years, but two decades in world football, scoring and winning titles and doing absolutely everything. I think football is a better place, mainly thanks to Cristiano and Messi and what they have done for our business."
Apart from Haaland, Jack Grealish and Julian Alvarez scored a goal each for Manchester City as the defending Premier League champions beat Southampton 4-1 at the St. Mary's stadium. Manchester City will next host Bayern Munich in the UCL quarter-final on Tuesday night followed by their home league fixture against Leicester City on Saturday, April 15.