1 hour ago
1
Erling Haaland tickled fans with his hilarious reaction to Arda Guler marking him at a corner during Manchester City's Champions League win against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu on Wednesday
Erling Haaland shared a hilarious moment with Arda Guler during Manchester City's 2-1 win against Real Madrid.
Haaland, 25, scored the winner for Pep Guardiola's side at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday. After Rodrygo gave Los Blancos the lead in the 28th minute, City turned the game on its head before half-time as Nico O'Reilly continued his fine form to equalise before Haaland netted from the penalty spot.
Although there were no goals in the second half, there was one moment that captured the attention of fans in attendance and watching on TV. It occurred in the 62nd minute when City had a corner, as Guler, who is just 5 foot 7 inches, looked to be marking 6ft 4in beast Haaland.
Before the corner was playing in, Guler appeared to holding Haaland around the waist before the Norwegian laughed in his direction and tapped him on the back.
"Haaland is the most likeable player itw," one fan said on the incident. "Haaland is a likeable sportsman," another said. "This is funny. Little and large," a third wrote.
"Arda was marking Haaland! [laughing face emoji, skull face emoji]," a fourth said.
While some found the incident funny, others criticised Real head coach Xabi Alonso for Guler marking Haaland. But fortunately for him and Real, the corner was cleared before it had the chance to get to Haaland at the back post.
Reflecting on his side's performance and the result against City, Alonso said post-match: "It was a very competitive match with different moments. We started strongly with Rodrygo's goal and a few other chances, but when you're not at your best mentally, in ten minutes they took the lead from very little, with the corner and the penalty. The team kept going right until the end and hasn’t lost face despite all the difficulties we’re facing, like injuries."
"The players gave it everything they had, and I have nothing to criticise today. I really value their attitude. We have to keep going. It's the Champions League.
"At the moment, the results aren't as good as we'd like. We're critical, we demand a lot of ourselves, and we understand the fans. We have to keep working hard. We believe we'll get through this because everything passes, and I'm convinced we can do it."
As for City, it was a crucial win and boosted their chances of qualifying for the last 16 through finishing in the top eight of the league phase. They sit fourth in the table on 13 points from a possible 18.
Despite beat Real in Madrid, Guardiola played down their odds of winning the Champions League this season. "We're not ready, we're still far from it," the Spaniard said. "We'll be better in February.
"We've played matches like this before, and we've even performed better in games we lost. The players put in a big effort, but we still have a lot of progress to make."
English (US) ·