Guardiola sends Haaland message after Man City penalty miss

Despite a rare penalty miss, Haaland still got on the scoresheet to end any hope Bayern Munich had of beating Man City in Wednesday’s 1-1 draw.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has praised Erling Haaland as a ‘machine’ and backed the striker to learn from his penalty miss in the Bayern Munich match.

In the opening half of Wednesday’s second-leg Champions League quarter-final game against Bayern, Haaland fired the ball over the bar from the 12-yard spot.

The striker eventually did put City ahead at the Allianz Arena. He finished off a swift counter-attacking move in the second half, extending his tally for the season to 48 goals.

“Erling is a threat, we know that,” Guardiola said after the final whistle.

“The penalty showed personality. He missed but that doesn’t matter because this is this competition.”

‘He’s an incredible machine’

Haaland missed his spot-kick in Germany after a delay was caused when Bayern’s Leon Goretzka removed an object inside the box.

“Everyone can do that in this kind of situation. He’ll learn how to do it, how to take a ball, disappear, get out of the situation and then make the process, put the ball [down] and hit the penalty,” Guardiola added.

“But he’s 22 years old – for him he’s an incredible machine.

“He wants to reach the semi-final but I’m pretty sure he’ll learn in the future.

“Next time he’ll be there, he’ll be more secure and he’ll be more confident in the future to take the penalty.”

Joshua Kimmich scored the other goal of the game for Bayern. The midfielder fired home an 83rd-minute penalty to seal a 1-1 draw. However, it wasn’t enough for the German hosts, with City winning the quarter-final tie 4-1 on aggregate.