WTF!: Haaland livid at referee as Spurs-City ends in nail-biting draw

Manchester City, the defending Premier League champions, have been going through a lean patch, having drawn three games consecutively. In their match last night against Tottenham Hotspur, Dejan Kulusevski's header in the 90th minute snatched away City's victory right from their mouth.

In this intense affair between two Premier League giants, things got heated towards the end when Jack Grealish went through alone, deep in stoppage time but play was stopped by referee Simon Hooper for a foul on Erling Haaland in the build-up despite him having initially allowed the advantage.

The referee's decision to stop play was met by loud protests from the Manchester City players who believed this decision prevented a clear goal opportunity for them.

Haaland was agitated on the field even after the match ended, and his dislike to the decision has now reached social media as well. The Norwegian striker posted a video of the incident on micro-blogging platform X with the caption 'Wtf':

His father Alfie Haaland, who was also a Manchester City footballer in the early 2000s, replied to his post with a single word: 'Terrible'.

After the dust settled on a frenetic encounter, City were left in third place in the league table, three points behind leaders Arsenal and one behind Liverpool. Manager Pep Guardiola had also regained his composure after losing his cool in the final moments.

Speaking on the late controversy, Guardiola refused to blame the decision for his side's failure to win.

"I make mistakes, the players make mistakes," Guardiola said. "It surprised me because when Erling went down if you whistle then it's fine but when he stands up and continues and the ref made the gesture to play on, then after he makes the pass he stops the game."

"After (Haaland) made the pass he stopped the game. I don't want to criticise them. In the touchline sometimes I lose my mind, my gesture was not proper," the Catalan manager said.

This is not the first time Simon Hooper has been in the spotlight for a debatable referring decision. In the Liverpool versus Tottenham PL fixture this season, Curtis Jones from the Merseyside club was given a soft red card, causing dissatisfaction. Again, in the Wolves versus Manchester United game, Andre Onana smashed into two Wolves players, but no penalty was awarded, following which Hooper was taken off duty for a week.

With Reuters inputs