Pep Guardiola backed Erling Haaland to break the Champions League’s all-time scoring record after becoming the quickest player to reach 50 goals.
The Norway striker brought up his half-century in just his 49th appearance in the competition – smashing Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s previous record of 62 games – with the opener in City’s 2-0 defeat of 10-man Napoli on Thursday.
At just 25 years of age, Guardiola sees no reason why Haaland, who has already scored 12 goals in seven games for club and country this season, should not go on to break Cristiano Ronaldo’s record mark of 141.
The City manager said: “In that rhythm, yes (he could break the record). If he’s not injured he could play for 10-12 more years, and he maintains this progression, absolutely.
“What can I say? The numbers speak for themselves. We are lucky to have him. Van Nistelrooy, Lewandowski, the two monsters Cristiano and Messi, for Erling to be there is unbelievable.”
City were able to take full control in their league phase opener at the Etihad Stadium after Napoli captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo was sent off for bringing down Haaland after 21 minutes.
The Italians responded by sacrificing former City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne on his Etihad return but the hosts eventually broke their defensive rearguard.
Haaland opened the scoring with a deft header from Phil Foden’s neat flick after 56 minutes and Jeremy Doku added a fine solo second nine minutes later.
Guardiola said: “When it was 11 against 10 we made a really good performance against a team that have the DNA of the Italian teams – defend very well, block the crosses, how aggressive they are, how strong their mentality is.
“I was really pleased because after 10 against 11 you can be more anxious and in a hurry, but it was completely the opposite.
“Every pass was with intention and every moment was with intention. Antonio’s (Conte) teams are always really, really tough to beat.”
Napoli manager Antonio Conte did not complain about the red card for Di Lorenzo but did feel the incident had a big impact on the game.
The former Chelsea and Tottenham boss said: “The game changed after the sending off.
“My feeling was that the players knew what they wanted to do and they wanted to do try to test themselves against Manchester City, but ultimately we can’t draw too many conclusions from that game.
“City are a team that is very well equipped to win this competition. We have to learn from this but my take-away is very positive.
“They could have pulled our pants down and won 5-0 or 6-0 but we didn’t deserve a thrashing and we didn’t get one.”
On the decision to take off De Bruyne, who received a hero’s ovation at full-time regardless, Conte said: “I was disappointed but destiny happened like that.
“This was our first red card under me and I was very sorry I had to make that substitution.”
