Pep Guardiola explains why Erling Haaland didn't play against Real Madrid | OneFootball

Manchester City manager Pep Guardola has confirmed that Erling Haaland decided he "wasn't ready" to face Real Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday night.

Haaland was a surprise omission from the starting lineup ahead of kick-off at the Bernabeu, with Madrid going on to make light work of the second knockout play-off.

Madrid already held a slender aggregate lead following a dramatic first leg comeback, but eventually opened up a four-goal advantage thanks to Kylian Mbappe's hat-trick. A blunted City didn't really trouble the Spanish giants until a late consolation, long after the tie was over as a contest.

Haaland, having tweaked his knee against Newcastle United at the weekend, didn't even make it off the bench. Guardiola later explained the situation and how the decision was made not to play.

Haaland told Guardiola he couldn't play / Carl Recine/GettyImages

"Erling tried to train [on Tuesday] after the last action against Newcastle. With the images we have done it was fine, but he had discomfort walking, for example up the stairs," said Guardiola.

"We spoke and he said he wasn't ready, he didn't feel good."

Real Madrid midfielder Jude Bellingham, a former teammate of Haaland's at Borussia Dortmund, expressed sympathy, suggesting he would have preferred to play a full-strength City.

"You always want to play teams at their best and obviously I hope he's not too bad. I saw the video and I hope it's not too bad, he's a good mate of mine," Bellingham told TNT Sports.

"You play what you're up against and I think we managed it well. If their key players don't play, they still have other players who can step in and cause damage so I think we nullified that well."