Rodri has revealed he was going to take Manchester City's stoppage-time penalty against Fulham, before opting to hand the spot-kick to 'killer' Erling Haaland.
Haaland was only fit enough for the bench after missing the previous few matches through injury, with Julian Alvarez - who opened the scoring for City against Fulham - starting in place of the Norwegian frontman.
Fulham responded well to going a goal down and levelled proceedings in the 28th minute through Andreas Pereira's penalty, with Joao Cancelo being sent off for the foul inside the area.
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However, Pep Guardiola's men went on to claim all three points thanks to Haaland's stoppage-time spot-kick - but Rodri has claimed that it was actually him that was supposed to take the penalty. The midfielder said that he trusted the 'killer' striker to score and wanted to boost his teammates' confidence following his return from injury.
"I was going to take the responsibility of the penalty, but I saw him and I think these guys are prepared for these situations, that’s why I gave him the ball," Rodri told talkSPORT.
"He’s a killer and he needed three touches to score three goals. One was disallowed and the other was in. I wanted also to give him some confidence after coming back [from injury], so yeah, he’s a massive player for us."
Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno will probably be annoyed that he didn't keep the 22-year-old's penalty out of the net, but Haaland - in typical fashion - was not bothered about that fact.
Haaland gave a short reply when asked for his response to Leno almost saving his spot kick, telling the press: "I don’t care."
The Norwegian striker, who has now scored 23 goals in all competitions, thought he had won the game for City minutes earlier after heading home Kevin De Bruyne's inviting cross. However, his goal was ruled out for offside by VAR.
City host Chelsea in the EFL Cup on Wednesday night, before welcoming Brentford to the Etihad next weekend for their final match before the season pauses for the World Cup in Qatar.
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