Pep Guardiola and Erling Haaland's emotions are certainly in contrast after the EURO 2024 qualifiers in November ended. One side is regretting not being a saviour for the national team. The other side is quite assured because the important star in the Man City squad will be rested.
In the friendly match against the Faroe Islands, Haaland suffered an ankle injury. The Norwegian coaching staff later confirmed that the star would not feature in the away match against Scotland in the EURO 2024 qualifiers. The Norwegian medical team also stressed that if they risk using Haaland in the match at Glasgow, the consequences will be unpredictable. In fact, this is also a procedural match in Group A because Spain and Scotland have advanced while Norway has officially stopped playing.
Norway has waited since 2000 to participate in a major national team tournament (World Cup and EURO). Haaland and Odegaard were expected to be the stars to lead a generation but in the end they could not make a spring. A few months ago, when asked if he could choose between winning the Champions League with Man City and winning the World Cup with the Norwegian team, Haaland said that winning some glory with the national team would be unlikely to be an impossible message.
Returning to Pep Guardiola's "happiness", he will have more time for Haaland to rest and repair his strength. Not only because the current qualifying campaign of the Norwegian national team has ended, if Haaland does not participate in EURO 2024, he will have another month next summer to freely rest and relax.
This season, Man City still keep the goal of winning the treble, so they have to exert themselves in all competitions. After a continuous struggle last season, Haaland will continue to struggle this season. That is not a positive thing for a player with a very good physical foundation and fitness.
When recalling the time he welcomed Haaland to the Etihad, Pep Guardiola was quite nervous. At that time, the 23-year-old striker only had exactly 3 weeks off from leaving Dortmund until his first appearance in the new shirt.
While Haaland returned to the national team, Pep Guardiola sent a medical staff member to closely monitor the Norwegian striker's health. The report sent to the Etihad shows that Haaland has not suffered too much injury, just a short break will return to normal. This time, Pep really took a breath.
One person's sadness is another person's joy. When the Norwegian team went down in spirit and saw it clearly, Man City was happy because they did not lose their strength in the difficult race of this year's season.
