UCL: Pep reveals shocking reason why he substituted Haaland after scoring five against Leipzig

Pep Guardiola has disclosed the hilarious reason behind his shocking decision to substitute Erling Haaland from Manchester City's UEFA Champions League game against RB Leipzig on Tuesday night.

The Spanish manager subbed off the Norwegian international in the 60th minute following his five-goal thriller in Manchester City's 7-0 demolition of Leipzig in the second leg of their UCL round of 16 clash.

The former Borussia Dortmund striker scored in minutes 22, 24, 45, 53, and 67 to become the third player in history to score 5 goals in a single UEFA Champions League game after Lionel Messi and Luiz Adriano.

The 22-year-old could have become the first player to smash six goals or more, but Pep substituted him three minutes after his fifth goal.

Explaining why he took off the red-hot striker, the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager said: "I know Haaland equalled Messi's record, of course I remember! It's incredible he did it in 60 minutes", he told Sky.

"Erling is young... he has an incentive of beating Messi's record in the future. If he'd have achieved that at 22, he would be bored in his future!".

The Norwegian international has scored 10 UCL goals in 6 appearances. He has also managed 39 goals in 36 appearances across all competitions in his debut season for the Citizens.

Manchester City qualified for the quarterfinals with an 8-1 aggregate score.

WDN