Erling Haaland has been praised for one thing he did against Newcastle as Man City ran out 2-0 winners at the Etihad this afternoon.
There were to be no goals for City’s No.9 as he missed an excellent chance with a header in the first half, but otherwise it was an all-action performance that included an assist for Bernardo Silva, a number of scraps with opposition players, time-wasting at the end of the match with Jack Grealish, and plenty of teamwork to help the side to a 2-0 win. The smile on Haaland’s face as he whipped up the crowd in injury time was telling.
Phil Foden opened the scoring with a brilliant mazy run inside the first 45; taking four Newcastle players out of the equation with his close control before firing a deflected shot past Nick Pope.
City failed to grab the second for a long while and were nearly punished when Callum Wilson fluffed a close-range chance – with Joelinton later doing the same.
However, substitute Bernardo was then on hand to finally clinch all three points for Pep Guardiola – feeding off Haaland’s flick to hammer a shot into the far corner.
In an effort to maintain City’s lead in stoppage time and keep his side up the pitch, Norway international Haaland was instrumental in winning corner after corner whilst frustrating the away side.
The striker won four corners in a row at one point whilst laughing to himself – even managing to get a Newcastle player booked in the process.
His play attracted praise from members of the media, who said:
They said:
“That was just ridiculous and I loves every second.” – ‘Shady, Man City fan(via Twitter)
“Erling Haaland doing it for the streets— back to back to back corner kicks Haaland at the heart of it. I know investors are happy.” – Thierry Nyan, journalist (via Twitter).
“Haaland’s hilarious.” – Jordan Elgott, BBC reporter (via Twitter)
“Haaland and Grealish had Newcastle on strings at that corner flag…” – Footy Accumulators, news account (via Twitter)
“Grealish and Haaland having a bit of fun at these corners.” – Henry Winter, The Times (via Twitter)
“Erling and Jack were just loving life in the corner there .” – @kirstblair, Man City fan(via Twitter)
“This is the best thing I have seen.” – ‘Irrefutable’ Citizen, Man City fan(via Twitter)
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