Man City defender Akanji: I was begging for Haaland to score

Manchester City defender Manuel Akanji admits he was begging for Erling Haaland to score in Tuesday's defeat of Brentford.

Haaland struck on 71 minutes as City won 1-0 on the night.

Akanji said: "It wasn't easy. We scored a goal on the counter-attack. The defender slipped early and the efficiency was there [from Erling Haaland]. He scored a great goal.

"We know how hard it is to play against Brentford, with their back five. That's why we tried to attack and we didn't run into too many counter-attacks. I can't remember too many big chances they had.

"After the weekend we had to show a reaction and I feel we did that. Now we have to improve game by game."

On Haaland's goal, he added: "I was just thinking: 'Please score!' The second chance we had, we failed to finish the game. Unfortunately the keeper made a save, but we got the win."