Guardiola Backs Haaland To Recover From Liverpool Misses

The Premier League champions fell to a 3-1 defeat to Jurgen Klopp's side at the King Power Stadium in a match that was billed as Haaland versus fellow Liverpool recruit Darwin Nunez.

In the end it was Nunez who had the bigger impact, coming off the bench in the second half to win a penalty which Mohamed Salah converted and putting the game to bed with the third goal.

Haaland was guilty of missing key chances, with the most glaring of them all coming in the final seconds of the game when he struck the crossbar with the goal at his mercy.

Haaland comes to England with a big reputation, having struck 86 goals in 89 appearances for Borussia Dortmund and Guardiola is optimistic the Norwegian superstar will soon start firing on all cylinders.

"He had chances, two or three in the first half, one at the end, fought a lot, made the movements," Guardiola told a news conference.

"Good for him to see the reality, a new country, new league. He was there. Today he didn't score, other days he will score.

"No [worries about the chances that he missed]. He has the quality. He has an incredible sense. We had just two weeks, the team was good in the States. I am really comfortable. The season starts now."

"He is strong, he missed it, another time he would put it in the net. What is the problem? It happened, it is football," he added.

"There was another goal disallowed because the ball was out of the line and he scored. He would do it. It's good to understand sometimes, he needs that situation to understand okay, this is what to do. It's good.

"I am not concerned or worried about that. He would be happy if we won, he scored goals, everyone would be, but the reality is it is a long 11 months.

"We have two, three months ahead of us before the World Cup, so intense, and then after that this season is every three days, four days, and Erling is going to score, I am sure of it."