Erling Haaland slams ‘not good enough’ Manchester City after chaotic draw in Monaco

Erling Haaland criticised Manchester City’s performance after they let victory slip away in a chaotic Champions League clash against Monaco, which ended 2-2 amid late drama and two red cards.

Haaland strikes twice in first half

The Premier League champions took the lead inside the opening 15 minutes when Haaland latched onto Josko Gvardiol’s lofted pass and expertly lobbed goalkeeper Philipp Köhn.

However, Monaco hit back almost immediately through Jordan Teze, who rifled in a powerful strike from the edge of the box to leave Gianluigi Donnarumma helpless.

City regained their advantage just before half-time, with Haaland heading home Nico O’Reilly’s cross to complete his brace. Remarkably, the Norwegian forward had just seven touches in the first half but converted two of them into goals.

Late controversy in France

Pep Guardiola’s side dominated the second half and looked set for back-to-back Champions League victories, only for chaos to erupt in the final minutes.

Monaco were awarded a penalty deep into stoppage time after substitute Nico González appeared to catch Eric Dier in the face. Referee Jesús Gil Manzano initially waved away the appeals but was instructed by VAR to review the incident.

As the Spanish official consulted the pitch-side monitor, tempers flared between the two benches. Two members of City’s backroom staff were shown red cards for protesting before Manzano overturned his original decision and awarded Monaco the penalty.

Dier, who famously scored from the spot for England against Colombia at the 2018 World Cup, calmly dispatched the kick to level the match in the 90th minute.

City denied at the death

City pushed for a late winner during added time but were unable to breach Monaco’s resilient defence, leaving them with four points from their opening two group-stage fixtures.

Haaland’s frustration

Despite his two goals, Haaland was left visibly disappointed at full-time. Speaking to TNT Sports, he said:

“I don’t think we played good enough. We don’t deserve to win.

We need more energy. We needed to do more of what we did in the first half. We dominated much more and then in the second half they took the lead much more. It’s not good enough.”

When asked about the penalty, the striker added:

“I didn’t see it. I don’t know, if you kick someone in the face I guess it’s a penalty.”