Haaland 'didn't recover' in time for Copenhagen clash; Guardiola happy with 'good point'

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has revealed Erling Haaland is not in danger for Tuesday's 0-0 draw with Copenhagen.

The Spanish manager's comments suggest Haaland has a slight problem following his side's 4-0 win over Southampton.

The absence of the Nordiques prevented the Citizens from scoring in a game for the first time in 23 games.

To be fair to the Premier League champions, they were reduced to ten men in the first half following Sergio Gomez's direct red card.

Riyad Mahrez also missed a penalty in the first 45 minutes and Rodri had a wonderful goal ruled out for a handball over the Algerian winger.

Rodri accepts that this is how some games will go when you play against a man, and refuses to believe that these are lost points for his team.

"Sometimes it's like that, you have to live these kind of games," he told BT Sport.

"With an early red card it's difficult for the team but we fight until the end and have chances to score - a goal disallowed and a penalty missed but it's difficult when it's 10 against 11.

"I'm a bit frustrated of course, I don't think anyone realized what happened but apparently it's a handball. I don't know if it's intentional or not but it's like that. We respect the decision.

"Then we have a missed penalty and the red card is a game changer.

"We wanted to come here and win, it's frustrating but we have a red card and we fight until the end.

"It's an important point, we'll see the result of the other match. Of course we want to win but for the way we played, 10 against 11, we can't be sad."

The city manager agreed that this was a helpful point for his team given the circumstances.

"We started very well with 11, then played an hour with 10 and we resisted," Guardiola said. "When we have the ball we are smart, we didn't push too much.

"That's a good point. Not mathematically but we've almost qualified for the next round and that's the main objective.

"I didn't see (the handballs).

"Now we have to go to Dortmund and try to secure first place.

"We will return to Manchester immediately, tomorrow is a day off and then we prepare for Liverpool on Sunday."

Guardiola suggested in his post-match press conference that Haaland had a slight problem, which is why he didn't come off the bench to score an inevitable winner.

Explaining his decision not to face the Norwegian, Guardiola said: "He finished the game against Southampton so, so tired and didn't recover well.

"Yesterday was not good, today a little better but not perfect so we decide not to take the risk."

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