Liverpool midfielder Fabinho has admitted he wasn't "so worried" about Erling Haaland due to his concerns with other Manchester City threats in Sunday's big match at Anfield.
Haaland arrived from Borussia Dortmund in the summer and already has three hat-tricks and 15 goals in 10 games in the Premier League. However, the work from the Reds' back-four and midfield left the prolific striker frustrated as he failed to score in the English top-flight for just the second time this season.
Haaland was involved in City's disallowed goal. He dispossessed Fabinho before challenging Alisson Becker for the ball, which squirmed into the path of Phil Foden, who fired in.
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However, after consulting the VAR monitor, Anthony Taylor adjudged Haaland to have pulled Fabinho in the build. Mohamed Salah then went on to score the crucial goal in the contest as Liverpool won 1-0.
Haaland was restricted to just four shots on target but Fabinho admitted the Premier League's top goalscorer wasn't the highest on his list of priorities during Sunday's clash.
"I think that, in my case, I wasn’t so worried about him because I already had Bernardo (Silva), (Ilkay) Gundogan and Foden on my side," laughed the Brazilian international speaking to ESPN Brasil.
"I was trying to close the spaces between the lines, then they do the movements very well, so they pass on the back of the fullbacks very well.
"We were working well on the right side with (James) Milner, Joe Gomez, so communication and also understanding with the other players is very important, and I think it worked very well. Then the two defenders played an excellent game, they managed to close Haaland’s spaces well.
"Of course, a player of that quality will always be able to have space, create chances, which is what happened, but Alisson was also very secure this afternoon, so I’m happy to have managed to close the spaces of a team as good as City."
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