Manchester City secured a narrow 3-2 win against Leeds United on Saturday afternoon, with Phil Foden taking the club’s lead through death and Pep Guardiola being spotted with Erling Haaland in the aftermath.
Josep Guardiola was seen calming down a seemingly irritated Erling Haaland shortly after Manchester City’s 3-2 win over Leeds United on Saturday.
It was a tough day at the office for the Norwegian. Not only did they fail to score on City’s goal, they didn’t have many chances to do so. And after the full-time whistle, Haaland’s dissatisfaction with not just his personal performance, but also the way the match was going, seemed to be on full display.
Haaland was seen talking to Guardiola on the pitch as the players shook hands and exchanged pleasantries, with the striker avoiding eye contact by looking to the side of the Spanish tactician. However, the head coach was eventually able to reverse Haaland’s scowl as the pair were seen smiling before the camera cut away at the end of the exchange.
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One X user uploaded the clip to social media and wrote: “Looks like Josep Guardiola will be placating ‘inconsolable’ Erling Haaland full-time!” But another user added: “Why does Pep Guardiola always seem to argue with Haaland after games?” A third wrote: “Haaland and Pep had a long discussion after the game.”
This comes after Haaland has not scored for City since November 9 against Liverpool. Newcastle United secured a 2-1 victory over the Cityzens last weekend, with a brace from Harvey Barnes canceling out Ruben Dias’ late effort.
The club also lost 2-0 to Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League in midweek. City managed to take all three points at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday afternoon, but their clash with Leeds United was not without drama.
Phil Foden took the lead immediately after the start of the match, scoring from the center of the area after receiving a ball from outside Matheus Nunez.
Josko Gvardiol then doubled City’s lead with a goal from a corner kick in the 25th minute. The Cityzens appeared to be in complete control heading into the half-time break, but the second half was exactly the opposite.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin gave City the lead four minutes after the restart, but Gvardiol gave his team a penalty in the 68th minute after fouling the summer signing in his own area. Lucas Nmeka was initially denied a spot by Gianluigi Donnarumma, but the German reacted quickly to the rebound ball to equalize.
What followed was a tense 20 minutes before Foden scored twice, with City finally clinching the match in the first minute of stoppage time. After the match, Guardiola said: “It’s very helpful to win like that.
“This is a reminder of how hard it is. After losing twice, it’s hard to follow up. Sometimes being aggressive doesn’t win you a football game. You just have to try. In soccer and in life, you just have to try.”
Meanwhile, Foden added: “It was one of the wildest games. We had complete control in the first half. In the second half they changed their system and we couldn’t move forward. It was a frustrating first half. But when we had a short break, the manager got us together and we adapted to their formation.”
“We had a few half-chances, but we finally found some space and found the bottom of the goal. We can still improve, so I’m happy with this result. Fighting for a title is never simple. There are always ups and downs and times when it doesn’t seem like we can move forward, and we’ve all experienced that too.
“At the end the belief and togetherness came through. I hope that was the case today and we can start from here. But you never know what can happen. I was very hungry to play today and prove that I can still score goals. We missed some chances against Newcastle so we wanted to put that right.”
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