Erling Haaland did not sugarcoat Manchester City’s performance in the Champions League on Wednesday night when they were pushed to a dramatic 2-2 draw against Monaco.
The Norwegian extended his impressive start to the 2025-26 season with a first-half double, bringing his total to 52 goals in 50 Champions League appearances.
After a calm first 15 minutes at the Stade Louis II, the prolific Haaland scored with his first touch after latching onto Josko Gvardiol’s feed, but the home side quickly equalized.
Jordan Teze leveled the scoring three minutes later with a well-executed strike from outside the area.
City controlled from that point forward, and after long periods of possession, Haaland scored his brace on the stroke of halftime, heading in from Nico O’Reilly’s cross to give the visitors a well-deserved 2-1 lead.
Pep Guardiola’s team continued to dominate, but after Nico Gonzalez kicked Eric Dier in the head, the former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder converted a 90th-minute penalty to earn an unexpected point.
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In his post-match interview with TNT Sports, Haaland was asked about his opinions on the game, and he was unimpressed.
“Of course, I don’t feel good. We don’t win,” he said. “We do something unnecessarily in the second half, and I don’t think we played well enough. So we don’t deserve to win, and yeah, that’s why.”
Speaking on what was missing from City’s performance, Haaland replied, “I think we need more energy. We need to get at them more as we did in the first half. We dominated in the second half. I don’t think it’s good enough.”
As seen in the match, a question about Monaco’s penalty followed, and Haaland said, “I didn’t see it again, but I don’t know,” he said. “If you kick someone in the face, I guess it’s a penalty.”
The Norwegian striker was then asked about the following about his brace.
TNT reporter Olivia Buzaglo asked, “As a striker, in the first half, you only had seven touches. Two of those were goals. Are we underestimating how difficult that is when you’re not involved in the game, but then to go and score two goals like that?”
He replied, “I still think I’m involved in the game, doing movements and giving space to others. So it’s not only about touching the ball if you’re involved in the game or not. I think you can be involved in the game in many other ways, and that’s my job.”
Haaland added, “I did my job in the first half. In the second half, I didn’t.”
