Erling Haaland goes berserk at Manchester's goal festival
Erling Haaland is furious: the Norwegian feels he and his team were cheated by the referee deep into stoppage time of a spectacular Premier League match against Tottenham Hotspur. Even after the final whistle, Haaland's anger has not gone away.
It was a spectacle that Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur gave the soccer world at the weekend in the Premier League: 3:3 was the score after a wild 96 minutes, with both top teams producing a thrilling back-and-forth. But the grand finale had to be abandoned - and Erling Haaland was furious.
Deep into stoppage time, referee Simon Hooper "stole" an advantage from the Manchester City superstar on his way to a potential winning goal. Haaland had been fouled in midfield shortly after Spurs' late equalizer, but Hooper whistled back the pass that sent Jack Grealish towards the opposition goal. And Haaland and several of his colleagues freaked out.
They angrily stormed Hooper, who had raised his arms apologetically early on. Above all Haaland, who could hardly be stopped. Hooper showed the striker a yellow card for his tirade. Coach Pep Guardiola defended his wild reaction: "That's normal," said Guardiola. "The rules say you can't talk to the referee or the fourth official, so we should have sent off 10 players today. He is a bit disappointed. Even the referee - if he was playing for Man City today - would be disappointed with that action, that's for sure."
"I make mistakes, players make mistakes"
Guardiola was also lenient towards Hooper: "I make mistakes, players make mistakes. When Erling went down, the referee said that the game would continue and after he made the pass, he stopped the game. I don't want to criticize him." He did not want to cite Hooper's decision as the reason for the draw, which cost the champions two important points in the tight race for the title.
But unlike Guardiola, Haaland had not calmed down long after the final whistle: the Norwegian continued his protest on social media: with "Wtf?" - an abbreviation for - elegantly translated - "What the hell?" - the 23-year-old commented on a video of the scene. And there could be repercussions: The FA, the English soccer association, could punish Haaland retrospectively in accordance with its rule E3.1, which regulates the behavior of players and officials on social media.
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Source: www.ntv.de
