Erling Haaland proved Pep Guardiola right with what he did on his Man City day off

Erling Haaland spoke to the media ahead of facing his former club Borussia Dortmund with Manchester City tonight.

Erling Haaland walked into Manchester City's press auditorium on his day off and greeted the faces in front of him with a booming 'Hi guys', quickly followed by a welcome for his visitors. 'Guten tag, if there's any Germans here. '

Surprisingly, there was not. Borussia Dortmund held their own press conference later on Tuesday evening at the Etihad but with all due respect to Pascal Gross, the travelling press pack were probably kicking themselves for missing out on an audience with Haaland.

When the Champions League draw was made, Haaland put a circle around this fixture as the day he would do his media obligations. The 25-year-old doesn't speak to the written press very often at City and regularly shuns the opportunity to talk in the mixed zone after a match, but UEFA requirements mean a player must always talk alongside the manager the day before a European fixture.

So Haaland was presented with the possibility of speaking here, or on his likely return to Norway in January to face Bodo/Glimt. He decided to keep the commitment, even when he was then asked to speak to Sky Sports later this week to preview Sunday's blockbuster clash with Liverpool. City pencilled in John Stones to replace him for the Dortmund press conference but Haaland stayed true to his word.

He might have regretted his decision when Guardiola gave the rest of his squad the day off on Tuesday, an unusual move the day before a match. While Haaland's teammates had their feet up, the Norwegian was making the journey to the City Football Academy and back, taking a significant chunk out of his day. He will return on Wednesday morning for a light training session ahead of the game.

If he felt aggrieved at having to interrupt his day off, he didn't show it. That friendly greeting suggested he would be on good form, and he was as interesting as ever. He has an ability to hold a room, and even if he doesn't give away as much as you might hope for, he is always engaging and was so again during his 15 minutes at the top table.

For once, Guardiola had been the warm-up act, and a lot of his press conference focused on Haaland. There was a glowing testimony as to why he has been added to the leadership group this season and praise from Guardiola for Haaland's 'humbleness',

Within a minute of sitting down, Haaland was straining to keep that character assessment on track. Asked if he thought he could break his record this season, he asked back, "I need to ask you which record? Not to sound arrogant, but which one?"

He's got a point. Haaland already holds numerous records at the Etihad and in the Premier League. This time, the question was whether he could better his tally from his first season at the club.

"I had 57 in total with the national team, so I'm in a good way," he said. Only it appeared he was incorrect. He got 56 from the start of June to the end of City's treble-winning season.

It was fascinating that Haaland got this number wrong, but at the end of his press conference, he could quickly recall the number of times he had been flagged offside in 107 Premier League games, correctly calling it at 18. The stat had done the rounds on social media the day before, so perhaps he had seen it, but the way he spoke about how he hated being offside and the work he put in to avoid it, you wouldn't be surprised if it was a record he was just as proud of.

Between getting a number wrong and getting a number right, there was plenty of the modesty that his teammates and coaches have come to expect. He was bashful when asked about breaking Alan Shearer's Premier League goalscoring record and literally waved away the idea that he is in the same class as Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo.

He will see plenty of familiar faces tonight, both among teammates and staff who still work at Dortmund. He left Germany's industrial heartland at 21 but asked how he had changed since then, with fatherhood and leadership now on his resume, he insisted he hadn't changed at all.

"Same Erling, but with more experience," he said. That was a pretty good way of summing it up.