Erling Haaland dismisses Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola's Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo comparison - 'Nobody can get close to them'

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Erling Haaland dismissed comparisons between himself and football greats Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo ahead of Manchester City’s UEFA Champions League match with Borussia Dortmund, which will be live on TNT Sports 1, TNT Sports Ultimate and discovery+. After his weekend brace against Bournemouth, Haaland has taken his Premier League tally to 13 goals in 10 games this term.

'Unstoppable' Haaland scores for 12th game in a row to give Man City lead

Video credit: TNT Sports

Erling Haaland dismissed comparisons between himself and football greats Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo ahead of Manchester City’s UEFA Champions League encounter with Borussia Dortmund.

Haaland has been in electric form this term, with the Norwegian's weekend brace against Bournemouth taking his tally to 13 goals in 10 Premier League games this season, while the forward is just two strikes away from 100 league goals in England.

Indeed, the 25-year-old has netted 141 goals in 159 appearances across all competitions since joining City from Dortmund in 2022, with that return having seen Haaland compared by his manager Pep Guardiola to goalscoring greats Messi and Ronaldo.

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However, speaking ahead of City’s home Champions League game with Dortmund - which will be live on TNT Sports 1, TNT Sports Ultimate and discovery+ - Haaland rebuffed any suggestion that he was on the same level as Messi and Ronaldo.

"No, not at all. I am far off," Haaland stressed. "Nobody can get close to them two, so no."

The forward added that he was not resting on his goalscoring laurels, and was eager to improve his heading.

'Have you seen his numbers?' - Guardiola compares Haaland to Messi and Ronaldo

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He said: "Yes, I have been practising my headers ever since I started with Molde in 2017 with Ole Gunnar [Solskjaer] and Mark Dempsey.

"I think you can always get better in things, and with headers, I think you can get better.

"I think you can always get better and better, so it is something I try to practice still, and you can see that I'm getting better and better, but there is still a long way to go."

On this season’s goalscoring exploits, Haaland continued: "I don't know. I think it is more the feeling. I felt really good in pre-season even though our pre-season was like two weeks.

"I felt really good, I felt energised. In the end, you need the energy and you need to feel good to perform good and from the first second I felt overloaded with energy and ready to go again. That was my thought."

Guardiola praises ‘humble’ Haaland

Manchester City boss Guardiola heaped praise on Haaland, insisting it was difficult to find a "real world-class player" who is as "incredibly humble" as the Norwegian.

"It is difficult to find a real, real world-class player that is incredibly humble and thinks what is the best for the team," said Guardiola.

"It is difficult to find. When a player has this kind of ability and the talent and generosity and kindness, whatever you want to say and Erling is like that.

"Normally a striker just thinks of goals, goals, goals. Of course, he has to score goals, that is obviously clear.

"But he signed a contract for 10 years and the more he is involved in many things will be better for him and the club."

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