Defence, not Haaland, key to Man City's Champions League hopes - Guardiola

Pep Guardiola has explained why Erling Haaland won't make the difference between Manchester City's previous Champions League failures and a first title.

City have been frustrated on several occasions in the Champions League, but are through to the quarter-finals for a sixth straight year after dominating Haaland-led RB Leipzig.

City's number nine netted five on Tuesday in a 7-0 second leg victory in the Round of 16, claiming an 8-1 aggregate win.

Haaland broke a series of records in the process, including rising to 39 goals for the season - a new club record.

But these unprecedented goalscoring feats won't be enough to make City European champions if they don't defend better than in previous seasons, insisted Guardiola.

When asked if Haaland's involvement could be crucial, the City manager told BT Sport: "I don't think so. The reason is that we conceded a lot of goals that we have given to the opponent.

"We scored four goals against Real Madrid, we scored six goals against Monaco, we scored four goals against Tottenham, and the whole time we were out, because we conceded. We absolutely could avoid.

“At the moment, we defended very well. The goals we scored all the time in all seasons.

“But of course having someone like Erling, like Julian [Alvarez], like we had with Sergio [Aguero] before or Gabriel [Jesus], who has the instinct to score goals… in this competition, in an instant he can score. It's important."

Haaland scored five goals from eight shots, all of which hit the target, before being substituted with 27 minutes to play, robbed of the chance to become the first man to score a Champions League double hat-trick.< /p >

"It was five in 60 minutes, no more than that. If he played 90 minutes...I don't know," Guardiola said.

"He's an amazing guy. He's got the power, the mentality, he's a serial winner."