It’s not about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward: these words that were uttered by Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa transcends the silver screen.
It sure does for Pep Guardiola as well, who came out in defense of his Manchester City striker Erling Haaland, after his gruesome open-goal miss in the Manchester derby.
At the brink of halftime, Haaland was clear on goal, mere inches away from an easy tap-in, as a delicious headed cross from Phil Foden floated into the box. But, the tall Norwegian just couldn’t find the back of the net, as he opted to shoot it high above the crossbar, missing out on a golden opportunity to draw level with United, who were leading, thanks to a sublime strike from Marcus Rashford, at that point.
Haaland with the miss of the season pic.twitter.com/u3Agipz31W https://t.co/Q0XWJ0SIG0— S (@scrapytweets) March 3, 2024
Pep losing his temper after that Haaland miss pic.twitter.com/Q6ATQw038g— Byrone (@sprm_maverick) March 3, 2024
Much criticism was thrown the Norwegian’s way for the miss, and after the match, where City ultimately triumphed 3-1, Guardiola came out to address the comments and defend his striker.
“The great players I met have this incredible ability to forget in an instant,” said Guardiola.
“It’s painful, yes, but (he) had to forget it as quick as possible.
“The best basketball players, golfers, tennis players, they miss, everyone misses. Ok, smile, positive and go for the next and that defines the great players.”
Forget the error and rectify it indeed is what Haaland would go on to do so later in the game as he slotted one in with ease in the 91st minute.
Rounding off the victory with his SIXTH derby day goal! @ErlingHaaland pic.twitter.com/2sIxWKed1I— Manchester City (@ManCity) March 3, 2024
Man City’s Rodri capitalised off a Sofyan Amrabat error in United’s final third, allowing the Spaniard to just tap the ball into the box from where the looming Haaland calmly finessed one around Andre Onana onto the bottom left corner of the goal to make it 3-1 and drive the final nail in the coffin.
City now lie one point behind table-toppers Liverpool as the race for the Premier League title heats up, whilst United are left stranded at sixth, as the loss dealt a massive blow to their hopes of making it into the top four to secure a Champions League spot next season.
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