Man City 0-2 Bayer Leverkusen match reaction and highlights
Man City made 10 changes to their starting line up as they lost to Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League.
Pep Guardiola defended his decision to rest Erling Haaland for Man City's 2-0 home defeat to Bayer Leverkusen last night. The Norwegian striker has 19 goals in 17 club appearances this season but was named on the bench as City made 10 changes to their starting line up from the team that lost to Newcastle at the weekend.
Nico Gonzalez was the only City player to keep their place in the side, with Haaland one of those introduced from the bench as they look for a way back into the match. Alejandro Grimaldo gave the visitors an early lead, which led Guardiola to introduce Nico O'Reilly, Phil Foden and Jeremy Doku from the bench at half-time.
The changes were unable to inspire the Blues to a comeback as Patrick Schick doubled the Leverkusen lead before Guardiola finally turned to both Rayan Cherki and Haaland. The final two changes gave City a greater attacking threat, but neither of them could inspire City to a comeback.
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Why Haaland was named on the bench
Erling Haaland has made 22 appearances for both club and country already this season and Pep Guardiola believed it was more beneficial to give him a rest against Bayer Leverkusen than in the other matches on the horizon.
"Erling qualified for Norway and it was so demanding for Newcastle and I see Omar close to the box and for the way we play we have attacking midfielders in position there and wingers there," Guardiola said in his post-match press conference after the defeat.
"It is what we have to do in the squad. A lot of games, you have to have a lot of players to play this amount of competitions and World Cups and I felt that I need to be involved with that. Erling cannot sustain 95 minutes, we need fresh legs and let's go and after that we will have the tempo that we want to do.
"Second half, the guys who play a lot of minutes - Erling played 90 minutes and 90 minutes for Norway and celebrated, then Newcastle - I thought quality time rather than time in the beginning. Savinho and Oscar had incredible pace and intelligence , they were not aggressive enough defensively. I thought why not Tijjani as well. That was the thought but it was too much. John is a central defender for the national team, Nathan ...I thought let's do it, I thought to try them but maybe I moved too much."
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