Erling Haaland has travelled to Spain and could feature in Wednesday night’s Champions League shootout with Real Madrid, Pep Guardiola has revealed.
Haaland gave Manchester City a major scare at the weekend when he came off in the closing stages of the 4-0 win over Newcastle with a knee issue and speculation over his status for City’s trip to the Bernabeu has been rampant.
City are 3-2 down on aggregate after blowing a lead late on in last week’s first leg at The Etihad. So news that Haaland and Jack Grealish, who was also a doubt, are likely to be available is a big boost for the Premier League champions.
“Yes, they travelled. We will see tomorrow but it’s good news they are here obviously,” Guardiola said of the duo and defenders Nathan Ake and Ruben Dias on Tuesday.
“Jack was able to play a really good game in the FA Cup [at Leyton Orient] but after he doesn’t have the consistency to play three games a week, he was not able to do it. Hopefully now he is able for the last few months of the season he can get it.”
Haaland picked the perfect time to score his first ever goals against Los Blancos last week, only for a last-gasp goal from Jude Bellingham to sink Guardiola’s men.
Both teams were fancied to qualify automatically for the Last 16 in this year’s new-look Champions League format. But both required a play-off after falling short of expectations during the initial group phase.
And Guardiola says City know they have no margin for error at the Bernabeu, adding: “You have to make an almost perfect game, obviously. The result is not the perfect situation. We have to attack and score goals, this is the idea. We will have to play an almost perfect game to go through.
“It’s the same going to Arsenal or Liverpool right now or Barcelona, the big teams qualified for the top eight, it is quite similar.
“It will be tough going away. Especially after the result we took in the first game. [We must] Play with courage. Be yourself. I learned that as a young player when we didn’t get results. Play with incredible courage and play to win the game, otherwise always you can lose but you must be yourself.
“When we did well here it is because we played to win the game. We have no alternative because of the result in the first leg.”
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