Manchester City striker Erling Haaland felt the need to apologise for action following his side’s Manchester derby triumph in the Premier League
Erling Haaland jokingly apologised to the Premier League after crashing their broadcast when taking a selfie after the Manchester derby. The Norwegian striker scored the only goal of the game midway through the second half but it arrived in controversial fashion.
The linesman initially flagged Haaland offside after he turned home Josko Gvardiol’s cross. However, VAR recommended the goal be given after discovering that he was actually behind Patrick Dorgu and that Enzo Fernandez, who was in an offside position, did not impact the play.
United push for an equaliser and forced Gianluigi Donnarumma into a superb save from Bryan Mbeumo but City held on to claim three points over their local rivals.
After the game, once he had completed all of his post-match media commitments, Haaland captured a moment when on the Old Trafford pitch by himself. He uploaded the photo to his Instagram with the caption: “Nice.”
While it looked as though Haaland was alone, he was actually in the background of Premier League TV analysing the game with Owen Hargreaves. Their official social media account made Haaland aware of this which saw the City striker respond in the comments by simply responding, “sorry”.
Haaland was a little less apologetic when describing how he saw his goal elapse while also praising the players for their determination following Phil Foden’s early red card.
He said on Sky Sports: “I thought there may have been a flick because normally I don’t go offside. I said to Michael Oliver that I took personal that he thought I was offside.
“I looked over at Enzo [Maresca] and he , like, give me a thumb up, and then I kind of knew that it was a goal. So I kind of prepared myself to go and celebrate.
“I think, honestly, this is one of the better, because the occasion and everything, ten men and everything. Of course, it’s always nice to win football games, never take that for granted, but especially at this, you know, ten men for, I don’t know, almost 60 minutes or something.”
While City have been commended for the effort shown to win the game, the big talking point coming out of the derby is that Haaland’s goal should have been disallowed.
Pro Ref have acknowledged the mistake and reached out to United on Sunday evening, admitting to an “error of judgment” in their official statement.
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