Barca 3-3 Man City: Fans slammed Erling Haaland after dive of the season contender in friendly against Barcelona.
In Friday night’s charity match against Barcelona, Erling Haaland managed to earn Manchester City a stoppage time penalty, but the fans have called his alleged “dive” in the lead-up “shameless.”
The Nou Camp hosted a six-goal thriller between two of European football’s top clubs on Wednesday as part of a match to support amyotrophic lateral sclerosis research (ALS).
A standing ovation was given to Juan Carlos Unzue, a former goalkeeper for Barcelona and assistant manager, in front of more than 90,000 spectators. In 2020, he was told that he had the incurable neurological disease.
All proceeds from the sale of match tickets will be used to support ALS research.
On the field of play, Pep Guardiola’s team quickly took the lead in the charity event thanks to recent addition Julian Alvarez.
Prior to Cole Palmer of City tying the game with 20 minutes left, Barcelona’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Frenkie De Jong, who have both been linked with Premier League moves this summer, struck back to make it 2-1.
Then, Memphis Depay gave Barcelona the lead with a brilliant close-range finish. This then transpired.
Erling Haaland was falling to the ground in the 97th minute as you can see in the video above after making only slight touch with former Chelsea defender Andreas Christensen.
— Out Of Context Football (@nocontextfooty) August 24, 2022
Then, much to everyone’s surprise, Haaland’s antics led to City being given a penalty, which Riyad Mahrez confidently scored to tie the score at 3-3.
Social media users weren’t slow to weigh in on Haaland’s antics during the friendly on Wednesday night at the Camp Nou.
A viewer’s remark on the video was as follows: “Aside from that, the punishment Haaland won is among the most lenient ones I’ve ever seen. He actually took two steps before falling following Christensen’s smallest touch. I would be furious if this were a competitive match.”
One more wrote: “Nope, that fine has already killed me. A third person said: “Haaland that was such sleazy dude but I’ll take it. Haaland dove then smiled at the defender.”