Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was disappointed with his side’s draw against Monaco in their UCL clash on Wednesday.
The English side had defeated Napoli 2-0 in their opener two weeks ago, but were without an away win in Europe in almost a year.
City dominated the entire encounter and should have been out of sight, but missed several chances to build on their advantage and were punished by a late equalizer.
Haaland opened the scoring with a brilliant flick after a pass from Josko Gvardiol with his first touch of the game, before Jordan Teze equalized for the hosts few minutes after.
The Cityzens were almost in front once again, although the crossbar denied Phil Foden, before Haaland got his second of the game on the stroke of halftime.
The Norwegian grabbed his 52nd career UCL goal in his 50th appearance, with a brilliant header in what was his seventh touch of the first half.
The City striker wasted another fine effort to increase his side’s lead, while Tijjani Reijnders was also denied by the crossbar.
They looked set for a first away win in Europe since last season’s success over Slovan Bratislava until Eric Dier converted a late equalizer for the home side, scoring a controversial penalty kick.
Nico Gonzalez was adjudged to have fouled Dier after a Monaco freekick, with the Video Assistant Referee advising the center referee to review the incident.
The game ended 2-2 as City moved up to four points, while Monaco secured their first point of the campaign.
Disappointment for Guardiola and City
City looked set for an impressive win, but were stunned by the late controversy, extending their winless away run in Europe to five matches.
Speaking after the game, Guardiola was not pleased with the result and believes his side deserved the victory.
“In football you have to win with the result. If you analyse the game there were many things that were really good. Step by step we will be better but we had many chances. Phil in the first half and many players played really good”, Guardiola admitted.
“We conceded almost nothing. We created chances, they defended so deep and tight, that I wasn’t expecting for the way they play but we adjusted and we played really good. When it’s close, you have to defend and we take the point.
“I haven’t seen the stats or the chances, but I think we were much more energetic than them, sometimes that isn’t possible. Many things were against us in situations”, he added.
