Erling Haaland might have been too good of a teammate over the weekend.
The Manchester City superstar striker Haaland pulled a very controversial move during a match against Leeds United on Saturday. Haaland, who is Man City’s best scorer as well as their designated penalty-kick taker, gave way to teammate Ilkay Gundogan on a penalty kick late in the second half. Gundogan, Man City’s captain, had scored two goals earlier in the match to give the team a 2-0 advantage.
After Man City winger Phil Foden won a penalty in the 83rd minute, Haaland let Gundogan take the ensuing kick, picking up the ball and giving it to him. Haaland wanted to give Gundogan the opportunity to score for a third time, thus logging the first-ever hat trick of his career.
The unselfish move by Haaland backfired though. Gundogan missed the kick, smashing it off the post. To make matters worse, Leeds ended up scoring a goal of their own just one minute later to make the score 2-1.
Man City manager Pep Guardiola was visibly upset at Haaland’s move, telling him from the sideline, “You have to take it!” while pointing angrily. You could understand his frustration as a 2-0 advantage isn’t completely safe in soccer, even with less than ten minutes to go.
Incredible: Pep’s Ruthless reaction to Haaland letting Gundogan take penalty and claim hattrick. Gundogan hits post. Pep far from amused 😡 pic.twitter.com/SIZkNHJ96K
— Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers) May 6, 2023
In the end, Man City hung on to win 2-1 to pick up all three points in the standings. But that could have been absolute disaster if Leeds had scored a second goal to steal away a point. Man City is currently in a heated title race with Arsenal at the top of the Premier League table heading into the final weeks of the season. They entered play Saturday with 79 points to Arsenal’s 78 (though with a game in hand). Had Man City dropped points by drawing against Leeds, that would have opened the door for Arsenal to reclaim the league lead (Arsenal went on to beat Newcastle United 2-0 on Sunday). But with Man City’s escape, they now have 82 points and four matches left to play as opposed to 81 points and three matches left to play for Arsenal.
The 22-year-old Haaland, who is in his first season with Man City, is an unfathomable goal-scoring machine. He has already set the Premier League record for most goals in a single campaign with 35 this season (breaking the record of 34 that was set by Newcastle’s Andy Cole in 1993-94 and tied by Blackburn’s Alan Shearer in 1994-95). Haaland is also a marvelous penalty-kick taker, going a perfect 7-for-7 this season (after going a perfect 6-for-6 last season for German club Borussia Dortmund). By any interpretation, Haaland should have been the one taking that penalty against Leeds on Saturday (especially considering that Gundogan had only taken five total penalty kicks over his 15-year career to that point, making three of them).
If there was ever such a thing as being too selfless, Haaland managed to do it there. But if he is able to lead Man City to victory in the Premier League title race (which may end up as yet another final-day classic for them), all will certainly be forgiven.
