Pep Guardiola, Manager of Manchester City, made the huge call, Erling Haaland in the Champions League decrees against Real Madrid not to start on Wednesday evening.
The Premier League Champions Trail 3: 2 in the overall game into the second stage of the Knockout play-off in Bernabeu and faces a hard fight to turn things around.
But the fans were shocked not to see Haaland’s names among the starters when the constellations were published a little more than an hour before the kick -off. Instead, the Norwegian was on the bench for the first time this season after starting all 34 earlier games of the Premier League and the Champions League.
It seemed as if he was wearing a knock and not able to start, with the decision that was only made in the morning of the game. “Not close enough,” was Guardiola’s fitness summary.
Just a few weeks ago, Haaland signed a new ten -year contract by 2034.
There was no Kevin de Bruyne in Guardiola’s line -up either. If you are excluded from the perhaps greatest games of the season, paint a serious picture of the future of the aging Belgian in the club, at the end of the current campaign from the contract and already connected to Saudi Arabia with a golden sunset.
De Bruyne did not play a role at the weekend against Newcastle and left the bank as an unused substitute in a Premier League game for the third time this season.