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- Sporting Lisbon earned a stunning 4-1 win over Man City on Tuesday night
- Amorim was taking charge of his final home match before joining Man United
- LISTEN NOW: It’s All Kicking Off! , available wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Monday and Thursday
Erling Haaland‘s recent woes in front of goal continued on Wednesday as the Manchester City striker blazed his penalty into the crossbar during his side’s humbling 4-1 defeat against Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League.
While Ruben Amorim waved an emotional farewell to Sporting ahead of his imminent move to Manchester United, the Portuguese ran riot over City at the Jose Alvalade Stadium, consigning the Premier League champions to their third successive defeat after recent losses to Tottenham and Bournemouth.
Phil Foden fired City ahead in the early stages before in-form Viktor Gyokeres inspired a stunning comeback, netting a superb hat-trick to score three of Sporting’s four goals on the night, with the other coming from team-mate Maximiliano Araujo.
Gyokeres’ second and third goal each came from the penalty spot, either side of Haaland’s shock miss from 12 yards out.
Fans piled on to social media to mock the Norwegian after his spot-kick rattled to crossbar, claiming that his game has dropped off ever since he told Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta to ‘stay humble’ after the champions’ late 2-2 draw with their title rivals in September.
Erling Haaland’s woes in front of goal continued in Manchester City’s shock 4-1 defeat against Sporting CP
The City star wated a golden opportunity to to cut the deficit against the Portuguese champions
Haaland was criticised after the game for throwing a ball into the back of Gabriel Magalhaes’ head in celebration of John Stones’ stoppage time equaliser – and cameras later picked up the Norwegian appearing to tell Arteta to ‘stay humble’ after the full-time whistle.
One user on X accompanied an image of an unflattering lookalike with the message: ‘Erling Haaland since telling Arteta to be humble.’
Another said: ‘Don’t say anything, just repost and tag Erling Haaland!’ A third wrote: ‘Stay humble eh [Erling Haaland].’
‘0 Goals/Assists 1 Penalty Miss 2 Big Chances Missed SOMEONE TELL HIM IT’S TOO LATE TO BE A GHOST NOW, HALLOWEEN WAS A FEW DAYS AGO,’ wrote another user on the social media platform X.
Post match, City midfielder Bernardo Silva admitted that Manchester City are ‘in a dark place’ after three consecutive competitive defeats for the first time in six years.
‘Even when we are playing well we don’t score our chances and we concede too easily,’ Silva lamented.
‘We definitely need to look inside and check what we’re not doing well. And we need to get better very quickly otherwise it will be very difficult to come back from these losses.
Fans savaged Haaland after his penalty miss on Wednesday, with many taking to X to mock the City forward
It’s disappointing because we’re in a dark place right now. Everything looks to be going in the wrong way.
‘It’s difficult to find reasons for what is happening to us. I don’t remember this team losing three games in a row. It just looks like this team is going the wrong way now.’