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Pep Guardiola backed Erling Haaland to reach goal figures like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo after the Manchester City striker added to his “ridiculous” record with a hat-trick against Ipswich.
The 24-year-old scored his 10th treble in sky blue as the reigning Premier League champions bounced back from Sammie Szmodics’ shock opener for Kieran McKenna’s promoted side.
Haaland’s spot-kick quickly cancelled that out and, after Kevin De Bruyne punished an Aro Muric error, the sharpshooter put City further ahead at the Etihad Stadium.
The Tractor Boys battened down the hatches after a wild opening 16 minutes, but the Norway international would not be denied the match ball as he rifled home two minutes from time to make it 4-1.
“I think he feels better than the previous season,” Guardiola said of Haaland.
“After the treble, he struggled to handle it, and maybe not too much holidays. I remember at the beginning he said ‘still I’m tired, still I am a little bit drained’.
“This season for no Euros, relax and arrive really well. We talked a little bit in the States (on City’s pre-season tour), like I didn’t like some things and he changed his mind.
“Of course he cannot play all the games until the end of the season, but you know how important he is, the numbers, the scoring goals and goals, is unbelievable.”
Put to Guardiola he already has as many Premier League hat-tricks – seven – as Manchester United’s all-time top scorer Wayne Rooney, the City boss said: “He did it in Salzburg, he did it in Germany. Yeah, the numbers are ridiculous. Ridiculous.
“So, he can compete in terms of goals with Cristiano and Messi. The numbers are unbelievable at his short age, the amount of goals, and he is an incredible threat for us.
“We are really, really happy to have him, and hopefully he can be here for many, many years. It would be really good for us.”
Ipswich’s first-ever visit to the Etihad Stadium ended in a heavy loss but manager McKenna was proud of his players’ efforts against a side chasing a historic fifth straight Premier League crown.
“We got off to a fantastic start, scored a great goal in the transition,” the Town boss said.
“Probably the exact goal that we wanted to score today, and we knew that we could score with their line being high and Sammie and Omari (Hutchinson) making runs behind, and he finishes it off well.
“We get off to a great start and then, of course, the game was lost in a five-minute spell where there’s some big lessons for us to learn, and I’m sure we’ll do that.
“The first goal is a penalty where it’s not a very dangerous situation. Of course, a one-v-one but you know you’re going to have to face them in this level.
“But being disciplined to not give away the penalty is really important and a 1-0 lead that if we had managed to hold onto for 10, 15 minutes I think the base was there for us to have a really competitive game today.
“I think everyone was comfortable with the plan that we came in with and how we executed it in the first few minutes.
“But 1-0 goes to 2-1 in the space of a matter of seconds more so than minutes and the feel of the game changes completely.”
McKenna took positives from the way Ipswich got back hold of things and showed resilience, plus felt they should have had a penalty just before half-time for a foul by Savinho on Leif Davis.
“I think we had, in my eyes, a clear penalty that we should have went in at 3-2,” he said.
“I know City could have had other goals, but I think we should go in at 3-2. It’s a really hard one to understand how it wasn’t given.”
Source: independent.co.uk
