Guardiola ‘Congratulates’ Rudiger but Issues Stern Haaland Warning Ahead of Second Leg

• Pep Guardiola has backed Erling Haaland to shine in the second leg of the UCL semifinal
• Haaland had a rather silent night in Madrid thanks to some excellent man-marking by Antonio Rudiger
• The two teams meet on Wednesday with the tie evenly poised at 1-1

Pep Guardiola has sarcastically congratulated Antonio Rudiger for silencing Erling Haaland during the first leg Champions League encounter on May 9.

Rudiger came out on top as Haaland endured a frustrating night on his first-ever game at the Santiago Bernabeu. The German centre-back combined effectively with David Alaba to lock out the Norwegian, who has had a high-flying season.

The game ended in a one-all draw leaving everything to play for in the second leg in Manchester this week.

Guardiola congratulated Rudiger but issued a warning that Haaland might return to his best on his own home turf.

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Congratulations to Rudiger but Erling is just 22 and it is the first time he has played in a Champions League semifinal.

For the first time to go to the Bernabeu, one of the biggest stages, against a top-class club with good defenders, midfielders and strikers, next time will be a little bit easier," as quoted by Daily Mail.

The Manchester City boss was speaking ahead of his side's visit to Goodison Park on Sunday afternoon to face Everton. The Toffees are among the few clubs that have gotten points from the defending champions this season. With Arsenal breathing down their neck, they will be wary of dropping points in the title race.

Supercomputer predicts UCL final winner

Sports Brief has also reported that a supercomputer ran some algorithms after the results of the first legs and calculated that Man City have a 69.8% of reaching the final. Once they reach Istanbul, they will have a 51.5% to win the entire competition.

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Inter Milan are the likeliest opponents in the final after they beat their cross-city rivals, AC Milan 2-0 in the first leg. Simone Inzaghi's side now have a 93.56% chance of reaching the final.

The study by BETSIE involved 20,000 simulations of games in the remaining fixtures where the expected goals metric (shown as figure xG) was used.