“It’s impossible to describe him” – Rico Lewis pays homage to Erling Haaland after Villarreal goal | OneFootball

Manchester City defender Rico Lewis nearly ran out of words in praise of Erling Haaland after Norwegian maintained his hot scoring streak in a 2-0 win over Villarreal on Tuesday.

Haaland opened the scoring for the visitors at Estadi de la Ceràmica after being set up by Lewis, who started in the attacking midfield areas for a much-changed Manchester City side in the UEFA Champions League group-phase clash.

Bernardo Silva’s 40th minute header doubled City’s advantage and secured another important win for Pep Guardiola and co, who are hell-bent on improving upon their disappointing Round of 16 finish in the UEFA Champions League from last season.

After making a poor start to the 2025-26 campaign – marked by consecutive league losses to Tottenham and Brighton – City have avoided defeat in all competitions since the end of August and have climbed to second place in the Premier League table.

The 2023 winners of the competition have also claimed seven points in their opening trio of UEFA Champions League group-stage games, though City’s upward trajectory has come largely down to the one-man show that is Erling Braut Haaland.

City’s Norwegian talisman is in the form of his life and is showing no signs of slowing down after scoring his 22nd goal in all competitions for club and country this season against Villarreal on Tuesday.

Guardiola has expressed concerns over City’s over-reliance on Haaland to bail them out of jail in the final third, with goals drying up from midfield and the wide attacking positions after a sliding doors transfer window at the Etihad Stadium.

After setting up Haaland for the opener in eastern Spain, Lewis was full of praise for his Scandinavian teammate. “It’s impossible (to describe) it’s amazing to play with him. It helps more than you think; he draws so many defenders, frees up other people,” the 20-year-old told TNT Sports after the victory.

“It’s impossible to defend – credit to him, he’s such a hard worker and never stops wanting to score and you can see that.” On Manchester City’s resurgence since August, the England U-21 international added: “We’ve got our confidence back, that’s the main thing.

“When you’re playing with confidence, there’s nothing really that can stop you but yourself. Everyone trusts each other, and you see the players who played today; everyone’s got trust, we all want the ball, and there’s nothing better than all of us having each other.”

City were in control for a majority of the game against Villarreal, with the dressing room growing in confidence amidst a purple patch for Guardiola and co. “We felt in control for most of it. There’s always better things we can do and we felt they had a few spells we could’ve stopped them from having if we were a bit better on the ball at times.

“But we’ve got to be harsh on ourselves, we want to win the UEFA Champions League and we look at the good and bad things. But we’re happy with the clean sheet and win.”

Lewis is expected to retain his place in the starting XI when Manchester City visit Aston Villa on Sunday in a bid to pick up their fourth Premier League victory on the spin and keep up the pressure on league leaders and title rivals Arsenal.