Erling Haaland has produced some remarkable firsts in his debut season with Manchester City.
Haaland has reached 30 Premier League goals in the fewest number of games, on his way to plundering 44 in all competitions this season. Other records have been set with his incredible exploits and the City striker will be looking for another first on Tuesday night - as he aims to finally beat Bayern Munich.
Haaland faced Bayern seven times with former club Borussia Dortmund, scoring five goals, but ended up on the losing side on every occasion. But with Haaland scoring for fun, Pep Guardiola will be hoping his star striker can take City a step closer to Champions League glory on Tuesday night and inspire them to a first-leg win.
"Erling is so important for us," said Guardiola. "I cannot deny the goals and the influence. He came to help us to be here in the Champions League, but at the same time to help us in the Premier League and FA Cup.
"It's important to have a player who can score a goal from nothing, but we've scored many goals for many years in the Champions League. Against Monaco, we scored six goals and were out. Against Tottenham, we scored four goals and were out. We scored four goals against Madrid and were out.
"I always had the feeling that we scored with a false nine, with Sergio Aguero, Gabriel Jesus, with Erling. We've always scored goals. That was not the problem."
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The problem for City in the latter stages of the Champions League has been at the other end, in shutting out opponents at key moments. Last season City were leading 1-0 at Real Madrid - 5-3 on aggregate - in the second-leg of their Champions League semi-final, only to concede twice in the 90th minute and then lose in extra time.
Against that backdrop, Guardiola acknowledged the need for better defending if City are to have any hope of going all the way in the Champions League. "Attack better and defend what you have to defend," said Guardiola.
"In these games, we compete against ourselves. The moment we start a game, we have to perform our best. Everyone, in every department, has to be focused on what we're doing and what we have to do."
Guardiola goes head-to-head with Thomas Tuchel, who led Chelsea to a 1-0 victory over City in the 2021 Champions League final in Porto. Guardiola insisted he is not haunted by that loss, but admitted City did not do enough to win the game and finally conquer Europe. "I was sad but I congratulated him and Chelsea for the victory," said Guardiola.
"I reviewed the game a month later. It wasn't as bad as I thought, but at the same time it was not a good enough performance to win it. It was a tight, tight game, like they always have been against Chelsea in that period. So forget it and try again."
Guardiola spent three years at Bayern before arriving at City and knows the German champions will believe they can win at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night. Bayern are not a team built to think it's going to happen in the second leg," said Guardiola. "It's a team built to come here to win. From my experience when I was there, I had the feeling that it doesn't matter where you play, you have to win."
