Football: Guardiola unsure of Haaland’s fitness after his injury in draw with Dortmund

City's Erling Haaland (right) and Dortmund's Mats Hummels (centre) catch up after the match. PHOTO: AFP

DORTMUND – Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was unsure of star striker Erling Haaland’s availability for Saturday’s match at Leicester City, after the Norwegian was substituted with injury against Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday.

The 22-year-old picked up a knock in the 0-0 Champions League draw in Germany and was replaced at half-time.

Asked about the change, Guardiola said: “Three things: I saw him so tired. Second one, he had a little bit of influenza in his body.

“Then the third, he had a knock in his foot. That’s why he was not able to play the second half.”

But the Catalan added that Haaland “was running normally again” and “we’ll see how that turns out”.

On the match, he said: “We managed the second half and in the first half we conceded some counter-attacks – they are so fast. We suffered as a team.

“But it’s what we wanted, top of the group and we will be in the last 16 next time so really good. Dortmund did not want to press high so we adjusted a bit our pressing. Apparently, they thought a draw was good for them and for us as well.”

In Haaland’s absence, Riyad Mahrez stepped up to take a second-half penalty, but his shot was saved by goalkeeper Gregor Kobel to help Dortmund reach the knockout stage, along with Group G winners City.

Dortmund coach Edin Terzic praised defender Mats Hummels for keeping a tight leash on Haaland, who has scored 17 goals in 11 league appearances for City this season since joining from Dortmund in the summer.

“Mats Hummels was outstanding,” said Terzic, after the centre-back, 33, intervened several times to keep his former teammate under control.

“We defended consistently and cleanly until the end. We allowed very few scoring chances, luckily Gregor Kobel was on duty to stop the penalty. It was a very united team performance... so we deserve to be in the knockout stages.”

With City already through to the last 16, Guardiola rotated his starting line-up, with Kevin de Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Jack Grealish and goalkeeper Ederson among the substitutes, giving former Arminia Bielefeld goalkeeper Stefan Ortega his debut.

Defender John Stones also played for the first time since suffering a hamstring injury while on England duty in September.

Sevilla’s 3-0 defeat of FC Copenhagen earlier on Tuesday left Dortmund needing only a draw to qualify.

The teenage duo of Karim Adeyemi and Youssoufa Moukoko had several first-half chances to give Dortmund the lead, but it was City who had the best opportunity of the match with their penalty.

In the closing stages, both sides appeared content to share the honours, eliminating Sevilla and Copenhagen.

Dortmund midfielder Jude Bellingham, 19, said his side’s performance against “one of the best teams in the world” showed that they could go far in the tournament.

“We’re not taking this for granted. We want to get as far as we can,” said the Englishman. AFP

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