Riyad Mahrez and Erling Haaland decided between them who took Manchester City's penalty in the FA Cup semi-final, manager Pep Guardiola says.
Mahrez stepped up just before half-time to put City ahead at Wembley, replacing Haaland as penalty-taker following the striker's skied effort at Bayern Munich in the week.
Mahrez would go on to complete a hat-trick, while Haaland went without a goal or assist and was substituted on 67 minutes to rest his legs ahead of the Premier League title showdown against Arsenal on Wednesday. Explaining the penalty-taker call, Guardiola distanced himself from the decision, while praising Haaland's mentality after his Champions League miss.
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"Normally I don't take it [the decision]. I don't say who is the taker," Guardiola explained.
"When both play they talk to each other. As much they score, I don't care. We know many years, especially in the Champions League, how many penalties we miss and drop competitions. Erling missed the first one in Munich, he's great and Riyad what I like most is that he misses penalties in the past but 'give me the ball again'. That defines the players.
"I remember Erling after the game in Munich I said: 'what you thought when you missed the penalty?' He said: 'I'm going to score the next'. Not the next penalty, the next action. And he scores. That defines the top players. They don't live in the past. They don't live for thinking I'm sad. The moment he miss, he said I'm going to score. This is the type of mentality that deserves to play in the big teams.
"If you don't have the players the team cannot be. Comes from the fabric, cannot come from the manager, it comes from themselves. When you sign players to discover these kinds of things before they sign is so important because in the end makes the difference."
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