Erling Haaland problem laid bare as Man City fans slammed for 'absolutely dead' Etihad in 'boring' draw

Thierry Henry highlighted something Erling Haaland “can’t do” after Manchester City’s “boring” draw with Inter Milan on Wednesday at an “absolutely dead” Etihad stadium.

City never got into their stride against the Serie A champions in a repeat of the 2023 Champions League final, with Inter the better side for the majority of a game which was of little consequence aside from hopefully stopping Arsenal fans from bleating about Martin Odegaard’s injury.

It served to confirm our belief that the new Champions League format is going to be a bit rubbish and Peter Schmeichel – on punditry duty with CBS Sports – agreed that it was “really boring”, and blamed the City fans for failing to create an atmosphere at the Etihad.

Schmeichel said: “I don’t think it was a good draw, I thought it was a really boring game and I am sorry to say that. I thought Inter did really well at stopping City.”

Jamie Carragher, who was in the CBS studio, replied: “Is that because you’re a keeper?”

Schmeichel replied: “It’s because I love good football, I like excitement from the crowd and it was dead, the Etihad was absolutely dead. The only people we could hear is the Inter supporters, they were good, but there was no atmosphere in the Etihad today. Normally you think ‘big European nights’, but it didn’t happen for them.”

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Erling Haaland had the chance to score his 100th goal for Manchester City in just his 104th game for the club – a ridiculous record for a human being – but spurned the couple of half chances he had and was barely involved besides.

And in what has become an inevitability on the rare occasions he fails to score, Henry took a swipe at the Norwegian over what he claims is the striker’s inability to get involved in the build-up, a la Harry Kane.

Speaking on CBS Sports, Henry said: “I don’t think he can, no. Go in the middle and play like [Harry] Kane can do. Right now, no. I think he can improve. Right now, he can’t do that.”

Micah Richards replied: “No but he doesn’t need to do that.”

Henry added: “He will, he doesn’t need [to], City are always on the ball with wingers, you don’t often need to do that. I was just making a point that right now, I don’t think he can do that. He will eventually one day do that but right now, he cannot.”

Pep Guardiola pretended after the game that he enjoyed his side’s display.

The Spaniard said: “We faced a really, really difficult team – the champions from Italy. A class team in all departments.

“I’m really, really satisfied for the game we played. I liked everything about my team today, everything.

“We would have preferred to win – there are still seven games. We’ll see what happens.”

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