Pep Guardiola reveals if he will rest Erling Haaland in Champions League clash

Pep Guardiola has revealed he will speak with his Manchester City staff before he decides Erling Haaland's involvement in Tuesday's Champions League clash.

The Blues are three points away from qualifying for the last-16 stage and can secure that against Copenhagen - a team they just beat 5-0 on home turf.

Last Wednesday, Guardiola's side strolled to another victory, with Haaland scoring a brace, Riyad Mahrez notching his first of the season and Julian Alvarez tapping in his first ever Champions League goal.

Despite the best efforts of the Copenhagen goalkeeper, City were in complete cruise control and will want a repeat performance in the reverse fixture.

With return games against Borussia Dortmund and Sevilla to come, Guardiola will want his side to get the job done as early as possible.

That begs the question; does Haaland start the game?

erling haaland, manchester city.

The Norwegian scored his 20th of the season at the weekend and has continued his flying start to life in East Manchester. Not that anything less was expected, of course.

He is always a big talking point of Guardiola's press conferences and his fitness was a big topic of conversation with a trip to Anfield on the horizon.

When asked if he was tempted to rest his top goalscorer, the Catalan boss simply replied: "No. National trainers will decided what to do, so I will not think about that.

"Tomorrow we will do the same. We have to speak with the players. It's true there is a risk for fatigue. It must involve everyone."

If City were to progress to the knockout stages tomorrow night, there is likely ample time to rest their number nine in the remaining two group stage games.

At 22-years-old, Haaland is in peak physical fitness and will not need too much time to recover from 90 minutes of football.

Haaland of Man City

Combine that with his hunger to score goals in every single game and you've got one very determined striker who will not want much time on the sidelines.

Haaland has said previously that Champions League games give him a 'different feeling' and he even admitted the theme tune was his phone ringtone for a short while.

As he continues to rip up the record books, expectations on what Haaland can achieve will only grow as the season progresses.

Games like the trip to Anfield on Sunday is a completely new beast, however.

Typically a bogey ground for the Premier League champions, Haaland will want to be the man to make the difference and put even further distance between City and their usual challengers.

First up though, he'll want to add to his impeccable European record.