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Erling Haaland came off with an apparent knee injury in Manchester City’s 4-0 thrashing of Newcastle United on Saturday to hand Pep Guardiola a concern ahead of their Champions League trip to Real Madrid next week.
Haaland went down grimacing and clutching his right leg in the final minutes of the match and was replaced by Matheus Nunez. It was the only negative note on an impressive performance by the hosts, in which Egyptian forward Omar Marmoush scored a first-half hat-trick before substitute James McAtee added a late fourth.
City go to the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday needing to overturn a 3-2 defeat at the Etihad Stadium in order to stay in the Champions League.
But Guardiola appeared confident when asked about the injury. “When he was down, everyone was scared but he got up and walked smiling like always,” the manager said. “I didn’t speak to him or the doctors but the doctors didn’t come with bad news so hopefully he is fine.”
Marmoush’s goals were his first for City in his fifth appearance and lifted spirits ahead of the daunting trip. Here, City looked more like the side that has won the past four titles than the one that has laboured through most of this campaign.
Certainly for an afternoon their defensive concerns – with Manuel Akanji, Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake all missing – were put aside as Marmoush took centre stage. The Egypt international looked the antidote to City’s struggles as he made his mark in impressive fashion.
His opener came after 19 minutes as he latched onto a long ball from Ederson, the ball bouncing invitingly over Kieran Trippier’s head. With Martin Dubravka off his line, it sat up perfectly for Marmoush to lob into the unguarded net. Remarkably it was Ederson’s sixth Premier League assist – a new record in the competition for a goalkeeper – and his third this season.
Marmoush doubled the lead five minutes later, this time after a driving run from Ilkay Gundogan. Trippier was again the defender caught out as Marmoush cut inside and drilled a shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the box. And his hat-trick came when the tricky Savinho weaved his way into the area on the right and cut back for him to sidefoot home.
McAtee, who came on for Foden at the same time, soon made his mark as he turned in from a Haaland flick-on, before the Norwegian – who had captained City from the start for the first time – suffered the injury that will have City concerned before midweek.
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