Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has allayed fears of an injury scare to top scorer Erling Haaland ahead of next week’s Champions League trip to Real Madrid.
Haaland went down clutching his leg in the latter stages of the champions’ 4-0 Premier League thrashing of Newcastle at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday and was immediately substituted.
Losing the Norwegian would be a major blow to City’s hopes of overturning a 3-2 deficit in the second leg of their play-off tie at the Bernabeu on Wednesday but Guardiola was not overly concerned.
The City manager said: “When he was down everyone was scared, but I think he stood up and he was smiling like always.
“I didn’t speak with him and I didn’t speak with the doctors, but the doctors didn’t come with bad news, so hopefully we’ll be fine.”
Until Haaland’s enforced departure two minutes from time, City had enjoyed one of their best afternoons of the season as they ruthlessly put one of their top-four rivals to the sword.
Unusually it was not the prolific Haaland, who was standing in as captain for the rested Kevin De Bruyne, who did the damage for City this time.
The day belonged to new signing Omar Marmoush, who scored a scintillating hat-trick in the space of 14 first-half minutes to effectively put the game beyond the Magpies.
They were his first goals for the club in his fifth appearance since his £59million move from Eintracht Frankfurt last month.
Guardiola said: “The highlight was him, the three goals. We knew it.
“In Germany, with Frankfurt, he made good numbers and against (Leyton) Orient he had three clear chances but couldn’t score.
“We knew sooner or later if his dynamic with the group was good and the performance was good, he would show what he is.
“Hopefully, he can handle the biggest compliments that are coming because this is non-stop.”
City’s victory lifted them back into the top four, three points above Newcastle, who slipped to seventh after a lacklustre display.
Manager Eddie Howe was strong in his assessment of the visitors’ performance.
“It was painful to watch from the sidelines,” he said. “We were a yard off where we needed to be.
“We seemed to be reactive and we allowed their good technical players too much space.
“Now, they do have outstanding players. They’re still for me, with the ball, the best team in the Premier League.
“But we weren’t competitive enough, we weren’t in their face enough. We’re disappointed, very disappointed, with our general performance.
“I expected us to be really competitive but, in terms of trying to deliver a really competitive, energetic performance, it wasn’t there.”
