Manchester City striker Erling Haaland has told his teammates to ‘be brave’ ahead of this Sunday’s title showdown with Liverpool. The current top two in the Premier League will meet at Anfield with just one point separating the two sides.
Liverpool left it late to beat Nottingham Forest last weekend thanks to a dramatic 99th minute header from Darwin Núñez to stay top of the pile. City followed that up with victory in the Manchester derby but Pep Guardiola’s side did it the hard way after falling a goal behind in the first half.
Haaland, who had earlier missed a gilt-edge chance to score, wrapped up the win for City in the closing moments after Phil Foden’s brace. It was the Norwegian striker’s 18th goal of the campaign.
Liverpool leads City in the table going into the match and the Premier League champions do not have a great record at Anfield. It has won just once there since 2003, with that solitary victory coming in front of no fans in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The two sides played out a 1-1 draw at the Etihad earlier in the season as Trent Alexander-Arnold cancelled out Haaland’s opener to grab a deserved point. Both teams have European commitments before the match as City will face FC Copenhagen in the Champions League on Wednesday. Liverpool meanwhile will play Sparta Prague on Thursday in the Europe League.
Haaland is keen to focus on the next game with City leading 3-1 on aggregate, rather than being distracted by the weekend. But he acknowledges the significance of the upcoming match with the Reds.
“First of all I haven’t thought anything of that game until you asked me now, I focus on Copenhagen right now, but yeah it’s a massive game,” he said in a press conference before facing Copenhagen.
“It’s going to be a huge game and one of the biggest games in England, so we have to be ready for the game. We have to be brave and we have to play at our best because they have been really good this season.”