Brighton defender Joel Veltman has revealed how his side plan to stop Manchester City striker Erling Haaland from scoring against them this weekend.
Pep Guardiola's side lost their first Premier League match of the season at Anfield on Sunday, as a second-half Mohamed Salah goal saw Liverpool claim all three points. Haaland failed to get on the scoresheet for the first time in seven successive league games, as he could not find a way past Alisson to score his 16th goal of the campaign.
Phil Foden thought he had given Guardiola's side the lead in the 53rd minute, and despite Anthony Taylor allowing the goal to initially stand, a VAR referral saw the match official summoned to the monitor before eventually ruling the strike out owing to a foul from Haaland on Fabinho in the build-up.
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City now find themselves four points off league leaders Arsenal, as their attention turns to Brighton, after their match due to take place against the Gunners in mid-week was postponed.
Haaland remains City's most obvious threat, as Veltman opened up ahead of kick-off on how his side plan to deal with the 22-year-old, and just how highly he rates the Norwegian striker.
The Brighton defender told Dutch outlet Trouw (via Sport Witness ): “I was watching City vs United the other day, in which Haaland scored that hat-trick. At that assist from [Kevin] De Bruyne, where Haaland stretches his leg all the way out and taps the ball in at the far post - that’s just not defensible.
“Then it’s applauding and running to the halfway line. It’s a tricky one. You often see that a long striker doesn’t have such good technique, but Haaland has just everything. Maybe we should ‘sandwich’ him, with an aggressive midfielder in front and a defender short at his back.”
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