The World Cup break next November worries many coaches. In Pep Guardiola's case, his thoughts are with Erling Haaland, who will sit out the tournament as Norway have failed to qualify for the final tournament, which takes place from 20 November to 18 December in Qatar. This will mean that the fittest striker in Europe loses competitive rhythm when he was living the best moment of his career.
Guardiola has joked about the holidays of Haaland, who has scored 22 goals in 15 games in all competitions so far, during the break and hopes that the player returns in good form to fight for all the titles of the season.
"He will be in Marbella and in Norway. It will depend on how he behaves in Marbella how well he is during the second half of the season," Guardiola told reporters on Monday. "He'll play golf, hopefully he won't eat or drink much and come back fit," he joked.
The Catalan coach praised the striker's intelligence and work ethic: “He's one of the first to arrive and one of the last to leave. He takes care of his body perfectly. He is well educated in the way that he has to live as a professional and he intends to improve, ”he assured the press.
City faces today (9pm) Haaland's former club, Borussia Dortmund, in the Champions League. The English team is already assured of going to the round of 16 and only needs one point to mathematically confirm first place in group G. In the first leg in Manchester, Haaland scored a late acrobatic goal to sign City's comeback that ended up winning by 2 goals to 1
The great performance of the Norwegian has not gone unnoticed by Guardiola: “I didn't know how well he moved in small spaces in the box, he scores a lot in the box. He moves away from the action to be closer to the goal, those kinds of moments are not easy for a striker."
He also drew praise from Dortmund manager Edin Terzic: "He was not only a brilliant player, he was also a really fantastic person in the locker room and on the training ground," he notes. Haaland scored 86 goals in 89 appearances for the Bundesliga club: "I think it was great for him to be in Dortmund, it was also great for us to have him here. But now he is a Manchester City player, he is scoring goals in a different shirt and we have to stop him tomorrow," he warned.
