Pep Guardiola jokingly said he took Erling Haaland out of the game to ensure he still had other targets to reach.
Haaland scored five goals in the 7-0 win against RB Leipzig, and Guardiola sent him off in the 63rd minute to prevent the Norwegian from completing a double hat-trick
The Norwegian star broke the record as he scored five goals in 35 minutes, becoming the youngest player to reach 30 goals in the Champions League, and the fastest to do so, joining only Lionel Messi and Luiz Adriano to score five goals in a single match in this competition.
But Haaland was replaced by Julian Alvarez after just an hour of play, and said afterwards: “I told him (Guardiola) when I left, I’d like to score a double hat-trick – but what can I do.”
Asked why he made this change, Guardiola said: “If he reaches this milestone at the age of 22, 23, it will be boring, his life. Now he has a target, that’s why I made the substitution.”
I didn’t know this about Messi (who has five goals against Bayer Leverkusen), but normally when the game ends I want to allow all the players to play as much as possible,” added Guardiola.
