Pep Guardiola credited Erling Haaland for his rapid adaptation to Manchester City's style of play, claiming the Norwegian has become more involved in their build-up in recent weeks.
Haaland has scored 20 goals in just 13 appearances for City since his move from Borussia Dortmund, including five in three Champions League outings.
The Norwegian hit a brace in a 5-0 home victory over Copenhagen in the competition last week and will likely play a central role when City look to confirm their place in the knockout stages by winning Tuesday's return fixture in Denmark.
Speaking on the eve of that game, Guardiola compared Haaland's recent displays to his first few outings with City, hailing the 22-year-old for improving his all-round contribution.
Asked how Haaland had adapted to City's style, Guardiola said: "If this happened, it works so far. Of course, we adapt a little bit, he adapts… we got to know each other on and off the pitch.
"But he settled perfectly and quickly because he's a nice guy, he understands things quickly. We know we have an incredible threat with him, and at the same time he knows what he has to do. When this happens, situations come easily.
"He's absolutely one of the best, no doubt about that. I had many strikers, they were all very, very good and Erling is one of them. The numbers speak for themselves.
"At an early age, how many goals he has in the Champions League, in Norway, Austria, Germany and now England… I speak a lot about him, but sometimes I should not say anything and just look at the numbers, it would be enough.
"Against Bournemouth [in August], I remember he was not involved much in the game, now he's much, much more involved, not just to score the goals.
"We know when he arrives in the final third or the box, he has a special instinct to know where the ball is going to finish and put it in the net. That's why he's an exceptional striker."
Haaland has scored a remarkable 28 goals in 22 Champions League games during his career. His next goal in the competition will see him equal the tallies of David Trezeguet (in 58 appearances) and Patrick Kluivert (71 appearances).
The striker will be one of few elite players to get a prolonged break during the middle of the season, with Norway having failed to qualify for the World Cup.
However, Guardiola says the tournament will not influence any decision to rest Haaland in the future, adding: "No, I don't think about selection thinking about the World Cup.
"The national trainers will decide how to handle the players when they get there. They don't think about us, we don't think about them.
"[On Tuesday], I'm going to decide the selection. I have to speak with the players, the doctors and physios, and decide what's best. We'll see."
Grant McCann believes Doncaster are heading in right direction after Gills scalp
Doncaster boss Grant McCann believes his side are only getting better after making it back-to-back wins with the 2-1 triumph over high-flying Gillingham.
Two excellent strikes from Ben Close, including an 87th-minute winner, saw Rovers collect their first home league triumph of the campaign, a week on from finally picking up a maiden victory at Forest Green.
And McCann feels his side are firmly heading in the right direction as they seek to make up ground on the promotion-chasing pack in the division.
“We had to be very good to win and I felt in the second half we were as good as we have been this season,” he said. “I thought we were really in control.
“We’re yet to have that full 90-minute performance. We’re still searching and that takes some doing, every manager will tell you that. Teams will always have a spell against you.
“I felt that Gillingham didn’t really have much of a spell against us and on a whole, I felt the second half was a real performance from us.
“I could feel the team taking on board the information we had given them, particularly in taking up the pockets of space to have that control of the game against a top, top team.”
Gillingham manager Neil Harris is still looking for his team to find the balance between defensive solidity and creativity after dropping points in South Yorkshire.
The Gills set the early pace in League Two with five 1-0 wins from their opening eight matches. But with Harris encouraging them to deliver more decisive scorelines, they have shown vulnerability in defence, which he is keen to see quickly banished.
“In the last couple of weeks we’ve been a lot more creative, we’ve had sparks, we’ve shown class and we want to continue that because if we do, we will wins games of football comfortably,” Harris said.
“We’ve won a lot of games so far 1-0 by being resilient. In the last couple we’ve not been as resilient as I would have liked but we’ve been really good with the ball. We’ve just got to find that balance between the two.
“The winning goal for Doncaster – he stuck it in the top corner but it’s poor from the restart, and it was from the first. To be a top team in League Two, we’ve got to be better than that from restarts.”
Despite his frustrations, Harris felt Gillingham should have won the game comfortably.
He said: “I’m baffled how we’ve not won the game. We’ve not won the game because we weren’t clinical enough. We should have been coming off (with) four or five goals but if you don’t take your chances, you don’t win games.”
Nigel Clough praises patience as Mansfield go third
Mansfield manager Nigel Clough praised his side’s patience as they moved up into third place with a 1-0 home win over Barrow.
Stags are the only EFL side unbeaten this season in all competitions but were made to sweat until Ollie Clarke drilled in the 72nd-minute winner.
A red card in the 84th minute Junior Tiensia then sealed the Bluebirds’ fate.
“We needed that win,” said Clough. “We are not quite as fluent as we were a few weeks ago, but you grind them out.
“With nine players out at the moment, that is probably a good reason why we are disjointed at times.
“But one good finish and you win the game – it was an important clean sheet.
“In a few weeks’ time no one will remember the game, just the three points which have put us back up to third in the league. And I think there are going to be quite a few games like that here where we are going to have to be patient.
“The crowd are going to have to be patient as well. We are not always going to be having 25 shots, as much as we’d like to.”
Barrow had the edge in the first half and Emile Acquah missed the target with their two best chances.
Rory Feely also sent a free header over from a 58th-minute corner.
But Mansfield took control and Will Swan saw his shot deflect over, skimming the top of the crossbar on the hour.
Calum Macdonald escaped with a yellow card for his challenge on 70 minutes before Clarke broke through with a low finish from 20 yards from Swan’s pull-back from the left.
Tiensia then saw red on 83 minutes for diving in on Aaron Lewis.
Barrow boss Pete Wild felt the game proved his side can live with the best and he felt Stags had the rub of the green on the red cards.
“I thought first half we played really well and it was a classic away-from-home performance,” he said.
“Second half as the home team they pinned us in and I didn’t think we got out enough and got on the front foot.
“It is fine margins and it didn’t go our way. But there were mitigating circumstances and I feel hard done by.
“The turning point for me was they should have had a red card before ours. He dived in and left the floor. Our lad’s was a red though, which didn’t help us.
“They won it with the one shot we haven’t blocked in the whole game.
“There was nothing between the two teams which shows we can live with the top teams at this level. But they have just edged it today.”
It was important we didn’t panic: Johnnie Jackson applauds AFC Wimbledon win
AFC Wimbledon boss Johnnie Jackson praised his side for not pushing the panic button after they missed a penalty and conceded an equaliser to 10-man Walsall before wrapping up a 3-1 win at Bescot Stadium.
The visitors led early through Connor Lemonheigh-Evans’ 20-yard strike and played most of the game a man up after Taylor Allen’s red card for a studs-up tackle on Omar Bugiel.
But Armani Little’s spot-kick, after a Ryan Stirk handball, was saved by Walsall keeper Owen Evans and the Saddlers levelled through Freddie Draper’s fine finish on the turn.
Wimbledon kept calm, though, and Ali Al-Hamadi set up Jack Currie to fire them back ahead before sealing a third away in four league trips himself with a crisp 18-yard finish.
“We controlled the game for the majority of it and got what we deserved,” said Jackson.
“After the equaliser, I was thinking ‘how are drawing a game we’ve been in total control of?’ And you think ‘right, we’ll see what the boys are about now because we’ve been pegged back’.
“But we carried on playing well and doing the things that had got us success.
“I wanted to see what the boys were about and it was important we didn’t panic and start changing what we had been doing so well up to that point.”
Wimbledon were victorious despite the absence of injured top scorer James Tilley, who had netted seven of their 12 league goals – a point which pleased Jackson.
“James has been on fire for us but it helps when you’ve got replacements like Connor, when you’ve got these players who are raring to go,” the manager added.
“I didn’t doubt that we couldn’t score goals without Tilley. I felt like we should have scored a host more than we already have up to this point.”
Walsall hit the bar through Isaac Hutchinson moments before Allen’s dismissal, a stroke of bad luck boss Mat Sadler was left to rue.
“Fortune wasn’t on our side today but the frustrating thing for me was the way we started the game,” he said.
“We gave ourselves a mountain to climb and that’s twice within the last two weeks we’ve gone one down within six minutes.
“That for me is the frustrating thing. There’s elements from how we started the game that we need to learn from.
“I suppose the ‘sliding doors’ thing happens where you hit the bar and four seconds later you lose a man, that then ultimately takes it away from us. Those little fine margins.
“The red card felt harsh at the time. I didn’t see it coming and it didn’t seem like any of their players felt like it was a decision he was going to make, and that quite clearly alters our ability to really get ourselves into the game.”
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