Pep Guardiola interrupts press conference question to make Erling Haaland point

Erling Haaland reacts during the Champions League match between Manchester City and Inter
-Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)


Pep Guardiola used his hands to come to Erling Haaland's defence after the Manchester City striker saw his goalscoring streak ended.

Haaland has smashed in nine goals from his opening four Premier League games to break more records, and needed just one against Inter to become the quickest player to a century of goals for a club. However, Cristiano Ronaldo's run of 105 games at Real Madrid can now only be levelled after the City No.9 was kept quiet in their opening Champions League game.

Inter were jubilant about stopping Haaland and Guardiola was asked after the game why he thought the 24-year-old had found it so difficult. Even before the question had finished, the City manager was gesturing with five fingers on one hand and one on the other to make his point.

ALSO READ: Man City players stray from Pep Guardiola order as angry Inter frustrate

ALSO READ: Pep Guardiola gives Savinho and Kevin De Bruyne injury updates for Arsenal

"There were six players around him," he said. "Six. Three behind, three in front. That's how they kept him out of the game.

"That makes it difficult for any player. [Francesco] Acerbi, [Alessandro] Basotni were five metres away from him, [Hakan] Calhanoglou, [Piotr] Zielinski in front of him. That's tough.

"We tried to use the spaces, that's why [Ilkay] Gundogan had a couple of chances but Inter were stronger than us physically. We needed to get more players up alongside Erling and that's what we did. I knew that Inter would defend like that."