Pep Guardiola's 'English not good enough' to describe Erling Haaland brilliance

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Manchester City manager says he does not have the vocabulary to do Erling Haaland justice after the striker shone against Brighton

Erling Haaland embraces Pep Guardiola after scoring twice for Manchester City against Brighton and coming off late in the game.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was lost for words to describe Erling Haaland after two more goals from the Norwegian helped the champions to a 3-1 win over Brighton on Saturday.

Haaland opened the scoring after latching on to a long pass from Ederson with 22 minutes gone and added another with an unstoppable penalty kick late in the first half to make it 17 Premier League goals in just 11 games this season.

Leo Trossard pulled a goal back for Brighton eight minutes into the second half, but Kevin De Bruyne later restored City's two-goal advantage to see out an ultimately comfortable win for Guardiola's side.

"I'm Catalan so my English language is not big enough [to describe Haaland]," Guardiola said after the game.

"The numbers are incredible and there's no doubt about his quality. He is so ambitious and he helped us win the game.

"The game was the toughest one we can face. It was a type of game we are not used to because we don't have any men free.

"We are so delighted with the points because it was a tricky, tricky game. I know how difficult it was but in the end we did it."

Ben Hayward
Ben Hayward
Weekend editor

Ben Hayward is a European football writer and Tottenham Hotspur fan with over 15 years’ experience, he has covered games all over the world - including three World Cups, several Champions League finals, Euros, Copa America - and has spent much of that time in Spain. Ben speaks English and Spanish, currently dividing his time between Barcelona and London, covering all the big talking points of the weekend on FFT: he’s also written several list features and interviewed Guglielmo Vicario for the magazine.