Featured Image Credit: TNT Sports
Topics: Champions League, Erling Haaland, Manchester City, Rodri
Ben McCrum
Topics: Champions League, Erling Haaland, Manchester City, Rodri
Erling Haaland has named himself and three Manchester City teammates as the players responsible for the dismal loss to Bodo/Glimt.
On Tuesday night, Manchester City travelled to the Aspmyra Stadion in Norway to face Bodo/Glimt in a gruelling Champions League away day.
Despite heading into the match as heavy favourites, City were soon on the back foot as Bodo/Glimt striker Kasper Hogh found the back of the net twice in the opening 25 minutes.
The situation only got worse for Pep Guardiola's side as home side winger Jens Petter Hauge found a third goal before Rodri was shown a red card just moments after Rayan Cherki found City's only goal in the 3-1 loss.
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After the match, City star Haaland spoke out against his side's performance, claiming that he and three of his teammates were solely responsible for the 'embarrassing' result.
Despite the fact that we should now be used to Haaland exceeding expectations, the 25-year-old is having a spectacular season so far, scoring 26 goals and assisting four in 31 appearances across all competitions.
However, the return to his home country didn't inspire a memorable performance as he failed to score again, with a penalty against Brighton his only goal in the past eight games.
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But, to his credit, Haaland accepted that he was partly to blame for the disappointing result against Bodo/Glimt, naming himself and 'experienced' teammates Rodri, Gianluigi Donnarumma and Tijjani Reijnders as the players responsible for the loss.
Speaking to TNT Sports, Haaland said: “I take full responsibility together with Rodri, Gigio [Donnarumma], Tijjani [Reijnders] - us experienced players.
“I don’t want to blame anyone but we need to take more responsibility, because at the end it’s not good enough. We’re Man City, we can’t go around and not win games, it shouldn’t be like this.
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“I don’t have the answers. I take full responsibility of not being able to score. I just apologise to everyone; every single Man City supporter, every supporter that travelled, because in the end it’s embarrassing.
"Honestly, I don’t know what to say because I don’t have the answers, and what I can say is sorry.”
Haaland's performance comes after manager Guardiola said that his star striker was 'exhausted' ahead of the brutal 2-0 Premier League loss to historic rivals Manchester United.
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But when asked how he was feeling, Haaland brushed it off, replying: “I don’t want to speak about how I feel or whatever. I do my best whenever I’m on the pitch, [and] I’m on the pitch quite often because we play a ridiculous amount of games.
"I try to do my best, that’s my job, and I try to get ready for the next game because now another game is in four days so we have to try recover again.”