Underestimate Haaland at your own peril, warns Man City coach Guardiola

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has blamed Erling Haaland’s teammates for the striker’s unexpected goal drought and has backed the Norway star to keep scoring “for the rest of his life.”

Haaland has netted just one goal in his last nine games — and that was a penalty. Before that, he’d scored 38 goals in 28 matches in all competitions in what he described as the best form of his career.

Asked what was behind his recent problems in front of goal, Guardiola said it was “the team.”

“Create more chances then he will score,” Guardiola said Tuesday. “Never underestimate the strikers, the goal-scorers, because always they will make you silent.

“He will score for the rest of his life, that’s for sure.”

City looking to avoid playoffs

City might need Haaland to rediscover his early-season sharpness in Wednesday’s Champions League home match against Galatasaray.

The English team likely requires a win to stand a chance of finishing in the top eight and qualify directly to the round of 16 without the need for a playoff like last season.

Galatasaray’s side should include former City players Ilkay Gundogan — the captain of Guardiola’s treble-winning team from 2022-23 — and Leroy Sane.

City made things difficult for itself by losing surprisingly to Bodø/Glimt last week to drop to 11th place in the 36-team standings.

“It’s where we deserve (to be),” said Guardiola, who is without a number of key players for the match. Rodri is suspended, center backs Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol and John Stones are injured, and January signings Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi are ineligible at this stage of the competition.

Nico Gonzalez has missed the last five games because of injury but could return if he comes through training on Tuesday. That would be a huge boost to Guardiola, who is otherwise without a specialist defensive midfielder.

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