Pep Guardiola has warned his Manchester City players that they cannot rely on Erling Haaland alone to make the difference as the club starts their latest quest for Champions League glory at Sevilla on Tuesday night.
This comes barely four months after their heart-breaking semi-final exit to Real Madrid last season.
Guardiola said Haaland, who has scored 10 goals in his first six Premier League games, has improved his team but insists the Norwegian will not be able to fire City to Champions League success on his own.
“If we put everything on Erling’s shoulders,we are not going to win the Champions League,” Guardiola told a news conference on Monday. “We try to help him score goals. We convinced him to come here as he felt we did not have strikers and he could play with us.
“I understand everyone talks about Erling, but I have three or four new players and I want them to settle. I hope he can help us, but we won’t win just because of him and we don’t lose just because of him. He has a special quality and maybe he can solve the problems we have, definitely, but we have to play good as a team as well.”
Haaland has fond memories of Sevilla after scoring four times as Borussia Dortmund knocked out the Spanish side 5-4 on aggregate in the last-16 in 2021.
His Champions League record already reads 23 goals in just 19 games and he will line up against a Sevilla team who have made a poor start to the season after failing to win any of their first four games in LaLiga.
