Southampton, Apr 9 (IANS): Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has said that Erling Haaland is on the level of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi after the striker made a huge contribution in City's 4-1 win over Southampton in the Premier League fixture.

The Norwegian international scored a brace to take his tally to 44 goals for the season with 30 of those in the Premier League.

Haaland's total is now the joint-most ever by a Premier League player in all competitions in a single campaign, equalling Ruud van Nistelrooy in 2002/03 and Mohamed Salah in 2017/18.

The City striker returned to the team after missing last week's 4-1 win over Liverpool as well as Norway's two European Championship qualifiers during the international break.

"We have lived two incredible decades with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, but he is on that level. The second goal was amazing. It is not easy to pick the ball up in the sky and put it on the grass," City manager Pep Guardiola told BBC Sport.

"I think our bosses bought him for this type of game. We are uncomfortable and not playing at our best level but he gets the goal. The second, you can't imagine at his height that he has this ability. Exceptional goal," he added.

Moreover, Haaland became the first City player to reach 30 league goals in a season since Francis Lee in 1971/72 and is closing on the record of 34 goals in a Premier League season set by Alan Shearer and Andy Cole.

Asked if he could emulate Messi and Ronaldo in a post-match conference, Guardiola said: "I think the pressure he has is high, like the pressure that Messi had or Cristiano had. He has that if he doesn't score two or three goals it's 'what happened?' The thing is he scored. Not all the time two or three goals. The numbers he has right now at his age are unbelievable. Unbelievable."

City signed Haaland from Borussia Dortmund in a deal worth 51m pounds last year in June.