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Erling Haaland clashed with a fellow Manchester City player during his team's 2-1 loss to Aston Villa(Image: Getty)
Erling Haaland was caught on camera berating Gianluigi Donnarumma during Manchester City's 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa. Enzo Maresca's men travelled to Villa Park seeking an eighth consecutive league victory, only to find themselves a goal down inside six minutes.
Nicolas Jackson pounced on a Marc Guehi error and fired home emphatically. City fought back and despite resolute defending from the hosts drew level. Haaland headed in an Iliman Ndiaye cross in the 52nd minute to equalise.
However, the Norwegian's delight was to be short-lived. On the hour mark, Jackson struck again, unleashing a shot straight at City goalkeeper Donnarumma. The Italian fumbled the effort, allowing it to squirm beneath him and into the net for 2-1.
Despite City's best efforts in the closing stages, the scoreline remained unchanged. Haaland was clearly agitated at the final whistle, though footage from the first half reveals his frustrations had begun well before the outcome was decided.
A tetchy exchange with the ill-fated Donnarumma in the 33rd minute had already hinted at tensions within the camp. City conceded a free-kick shortly after the half-hour mark when Guehi brought down Jackson on the counter-attack. Villa's players began to organise themselves for the set piece, positioned just outside the penalty area.
The City goalkeeper stepped off his line to speak to the referee(Image: TNT Sports)
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However, Donnarumma briefly vacated his line as the free-kick was being set up, approaching the official to contest the decision. Several other City players had also been remonstrating with the referee.
Haaland took exception to the Italian straying from his goal and was quickly spotted gesturing towards the 27-year-old, seemingly urging him to return to his position.
Donnarumma was ultimately not tested by the free-kick itself, as Johan Manzambi put the effort over. However, in the second half, Jackson's fierce effort squirmed beneath him in a costly blunder.
Reflecting on the match, manager Maresca told TNT Sports that both goals City conceded could have been avoided. He said: "Absolutely, both.
Haaland seemed to gesture at Donnarumma(Image: TNT Sports)
"Sometimes you have to be a bit more lucky because we only conceded those two chances, but we created a lot of chances. We played most of the game in their box.
"But you have to be clinical and avoid mistakes like the two goals we conceded. The overall performance was good. Second half, we conceded in transition.
"We needed to defend that a little better and be a little bit luckier in that transition but that is football," he added. "We will learn from that."