Of the many good things that Erling Haaland did on Tuesday night, his post-match interviews were right up there.
Speaking to American broadcaster CBS after his five-goal haul, the Manchester City striker described the 7-0 win as a statement performance and result and indicated that he had been brought to the club to win the Champions League. "They didn’t bring me in to win the Premier League because they already know how to win it, so you can read between the lines", he said.
If that seems entirely normal, it is exactly the kind of message that Pep Guardiola has been refusing to give. Despite a sixth successive Champions League quarter-final, the manager is still going on about being a failure.
Also read: Guardiola explains why he denied Haaland double hat-trick chance
Bringing up Julia Roberts was a particular headscratcher, but was a (completely obscure) variation of a theme that Guardiola has been warming to for a while - the idea that he will not get credit for his achievements as City manager unless he wins the Champions League. It has been brought up a number of times, and was again before this match when he expressed his incredulity at being told by media he was at City to win them the Champions League when he arrived in 2016.
Guardiola was asked after their 5-0 win over Sporting at this stage of the competition last year if he accepted it would be seen as a statement result, and within two sentences was talking about how they had gone all the way the previous year but "we lost the final and it was like 'what a f****** failure this team is'". After their 1-1 draw with Leipzig this year, he railed against criticism of the result and said it was not a reality to expect City to win 5-0 in the Champions League knockouts; they won 7-0 in the return game.
The manager may of course be absolutely right that the second leg could not have happened without the first leg, the Blues needing to actually play their opponents before they could fully work out how best to exploit them. There is also no doubt that they are in better form now than they were last month when they headed to Leipzig as part of a sapping run of five consecutive away games.
Guardiola is also well used to playing down the hype and expectations around his team - 'what the ****', he swore to himself, when asked mere months into his first season in England if he could win the Quadruple - because he both needs to keep his players in check but also is old enough to know that things do not go your way. Particularly for City in the Champions League, there are many painful reasons not to get carried away.
But it is still nice to hear the exuberant bullishness of a world-beating 22-year-old whose answers can be as blunt as his finishing is sharp, because it is what many others see. City trouncing RB Leipzig improves their standing for the quarter-final draw on Friday because their result and performances has reverberated across the continent for all of the teams still left in.
If Guardiola is obviously going to be more cautious about City's chances, Haaland has shown that the players are unafraid to talk themselves up as they back themselves to finally land the elusive trophy.
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