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Erling Haaland is expected to make a return for Manchester City against Southampton in the Premier League on Saturday after recovering from a groin injury.
Haaland missed out on Norway’s Euro 2024 qualifiers against Spain and Georgia last month, as well as City’s 4-1 win over Liverpool last Saturday.
Guardiola said the striker, who has scored 42 goals in 37 matches in all competitions, had recovered from the injury, telling reporters: “He trained the last two days, really good.
He will be ready.”
Haaland’s return will provide a boost to City as they approach the home stretch of the campaign, with three trophies still up for grabs.
City, who are second in the league, eight points behind leaders Arsenal but with a game in hand, have also reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League and semi-finals of the FA Cup.
Their coming run of fixtures will likely define their season, but Guardiola said his players are well accustomed to the pressure.
“The last part of the season, international break, it depends on us how many games we’re going to play, Premier League for sure, Champions League, FA Cup,” Guardiola said.
“If we win, we’re still in, if we don’t we’re out… If we drop points Arsenal will be champions in advance, if we win, win, win, we might be champions at the end of the season. We are used to it, it’s not a problem.”
On Saturday, City will face bottom club Southampton for a third time this season, with Ruben Selles set to become the third different manager of the south coast club to pit his wits against Guardiola in those three games.
