Pep Guardiola is happy as Man City have given Erling Haaland some goal support

pep guardiola Glad to see another name on the scoresheet as Manchester City win 2-0 Villarreal On Tuesday.

Erling Haaland, almost inevitably, struck once again as City claimed their first Champions League Won in six tries but his initial effort was followed by a powerful header from the captain Bernardo Silva,

City manager Guardiola said after Saturday’s 2-0 defeat everton – when Haaland bagged a brace, meaning he had scored City’s last seven goals in all competitions – that the team could not always rely on the Norwegian, who has now scored a remarkable 24 times in 14 appearances for club and country this season.

Guardiola said: “I’m happy that Erling scored again and Bernardo also scored with his head.

“I remember, it was a bit like (Lionel) Messi. It’s like a hammer. He has a hammer in his neck. He is small but very good at making head contact.

“I’m happy with the win. They had some good chances and Villarreal is a top team.

“The vibe is good and the first half was really good. We scored at the right moments and we created good danger.”

City, who are unbeaten in nine games in all competitions, have now taken seven points from their three fixtures in the league stage.

This is a healthy situation for a team that struggled last season and failed to make the last 16.

“The difference with last season is that our (injured) players were in hospital,” Guardiola said. “We had 15 or 16 players and they started to get tired after 70 minutes and they needed to play every three games.”

The victory was never really in doubt, although Villarreal gave them some uncomfortable moments in the second half.

Guardiola said: “We felt in control for the majority of the game. We can always do better things and we think they had some spells that we could have stopped, but we have to be hard on ourselves if we want to win the competition.

“We are happy with the clean sheet and the win.

“We weren’t nervous but the game never closes at 2-0. We had a lot of chances but they had two. That’s what happens.

“It took us a long time to get them to play deep and we need to improve on that and we will improve on that.”