Josko Gvardiol admits he is much happier playing alongside Erling Haaland than playing against him.

The Croatian defender was asked about the last time RB Leipzig visited the Etihad and ended up on the end of a 7-0 thrashing.

Of course, Haaland bagged five goals that night, something Gvardiol – in the Leipzig defence – won’t forget in a hurry.

“Yeah, I’m very happy to be his team-mate!” said Gvardiol.

“It wasn’t just about Haaland, it was the first eleven on the pitch that night.

“It was a hard game and me as a centre-back, I was really looking forward to facing Haaland.

“But in the end it didn’t finish good. He scored five goals in about 60 minutes.

“When I saw him subbed off I thought ‘yeah finally!’

“I’m happy to be part of this team. I’ve said many times that being surrounded with amazing players, is something that you can’t imagine.

“I need to take every day to learn from the best because you never know what will happen in the next season. I just use every day to make myself better.”

And asked what made Haaland so special as a striker, he said: “If you ask me, Erling is just.. at the beginning of the game he’s nowhere then he shows up and scores a hat-trick.

“He’s hard to talk about, but he has been doing and what he has done is just… I don’t understand how, but I’m really happy for him.”