Manchester Metropolis supervisor Pep Guardiola joked that he substituted Erling Haaland in Saturday’s 6-0 win over Burnley within the FA Cup as he did not need him to interrupt one other file of Lionel Messi’s.
The Norwegian striker continued his superb debut season in England by netting his sixth hat-trick for the Cityzens on Saturday night.
This treble got here simply days after he put 5 of Man Metropolis’s seven previous RB Leipzig within the second leg of their UEFA Champions League final 16 tie.
That haul meant Haaland joined Messi as the one two gamers to have scored 5 targets within the knockout levels of the Champions League.
Whereas the 22-year-old went searching for a double hat-trick, Guardiola substituted him with slightly below half an hour to play, prompting conspiracy theories on social media that this was to protect Messi’s place within the file books.
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Guardiola hauled Haaland at the same level throughout Man Metropolis’s demolition of Burnley, and chatting with the media post-match, appeared to recognise what had been stated about his relationship with Messi earlier this week.
“Eight targets in 4 days. I performed 11 years in Barcelona and scored 11 targets!” Guardiola started.
“He did it. It is unimaginable. I made a substitution to him at three targets to not break the file to Messi within the FA Cup.”
For the avoidance of doubt, no, Messi has by no means performed within the FA Cup.
