Pep Guardiola has explained why he was so angry that Erling Haaland delegated penalty duties to Ilkay Gundogan during Manchester City’s 2-1 win over Leeds.
The Citizens have overtaken Arsenal at the top of the English Premier League table and have their foot on the accelerator as they motor towards the title with four games to play. The gap is only four points though, and they were given a late scare by battling Leeds when Rodrygo halved the deficit to ensure a nervy finish at the Etihad.
They had the chance to put the game to bed before then after being awarded a spot kick. With Gundogan on a hat-trick, hotshot Haaland offered him the ball rather than stepping up himself, having already netted an incredible 35 league goals this season. But Gundogan struck the post and the TV cameras showed a fuming Guardiola telling Haaland in no uncertain terms that he should be the man on pens.
The Spaniard wouldn’t have had a problem had his side been out of sight. But there’s little margin for error in the English top flight and he reminded the Norwegian that ruthlessness is required and preferable to being a “nice” teammate in such situations.
He said: “The game is not over. The first taker is Erling. That means, how nice is Erling? How generous and how special a person he is.
"If the game is 4-0 with ten minutes left, it’s okay. But 2-0? Who is the best penalty taker by far right now? It’s Erling. He had to take it.
"In Football, you think everything is done? It’s done when everything is done. This is the Premier League. It’s over when the referee says ‘okay, goodbye, go home.’ After that, it’s over.”
