Pep Guardiola was delighted to see Erling Haaland find a way past Bernd Leno during Manchester City’s dramatic Premier League win, telling the club’s official website that the Fulham goalkeeper is an ‘incredible’ penalty saver.
If things had worked out differently, perhaps Leno would have been standing between the sticks at the other end of the pitch when Marco Silva’s Fulham travelled to the Etihad Stadium over the weekend.
Leno, after all, was on City’s two-man shortlist when the club decided to replace the under-fire Claudio Bravo in 2017.
“(Leno and Ederson) both fitted the bill,” sporting director Txiki Begiristain tells Pep’s City. “One was more expensive to buy, the other required a higher salary. I left it up to the coaches to choose.”
The coaches, of course, would opt for Ederson. Arguably the finest ball-playing glovesman in the world – and a pretty useful shot-stopper too – Guardiola and co certainly backed the right horse.
Then again, Germany international Leno has enjoyed a more-than respectable Premier League career of his own; thriving at Fulham after a spell down the road at Arsenal.
Man City once thought about signing Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno
Leno very nearly came back to haunt his old admirers too, only for Haaland’s stoppage time penalty to graze his fingers on it’s way into the bottom corner.
“The penalty wasn’t the best I’d seen in my life, but he hit it strongly. Leno, I know from (my time in) Germany. He’s an incredible penalty saver,” Guardiola says; City keeping pace with Arsenal at the top of the table despite playing with ten-men for around 80 minutes following Joao Cancelo’s early red card.
“Erling finished good. Destiny seems like all was against us today but, in the end, we could win.”
The frustration following a last-gasp defeat against a side playing with a man less will undoubtedly rankle with Fulham supporters. Especially given the contentious nature of the penalty award. The Cottagers, however, could still go into the World Cup break in the top half of the table.
And pretty much every Fulham supporter would have torn your arm off at the joint if you’d offered them that a couple of months ago.
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