These are your Manchester City evening headlines for Wednesday, December 14.
What Lionel Messi said about Man City ace Julian Alvarez after 'extraordinary' World Cup performance
Lionel Messi has praised Manchester City forward Julian Alvarez for his personal performance as Argentina defeated Croatia to secure their spot in the World Cup final.
Alvarez scored twice for Lionel Scaloni's side as the South American outfit won 3-0 on Tuesday night, with Paris Saint-Germain star Messi scoring the other goal from the spot.
The City frontman has now scored four goals at the World Cup in Qatar, having also been on the scoresheet against Poland and Australia. His strong showings are keeping Lautaro Martinez, Paulo Dybala and Angel Di Maria out of the starting line-up.
Pep Guardiola has no other choice but to unleash Man City transfer 'gamble'
Statistics have taken over the modern game and when Erling Haaland is around that is only to be expected.
Manchester City won the goalscoring lottery this summer when signing the Norway sensation for £51million from Borussia Dortmund and he has already repaid that bargain transfer fee with 29 goals in 24 appearances. Alarmingly for Premier League rivals, there will be more to come from him after the World Cup break.
However, no matter what number Haaland ends up on this season, the only figure that realistically matters for City is how many trophies he gets his hands on. As manager Pep Guardiola would no doubt argue, his goals are the icing on the cake for the hard work that goes in behind him defensively and from build-up routines.
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