What Seamus Coleman said to Erling Haaland before Man City penalty miss

Seamus Coleman has revealed what he said to Erling Haaland before the Manchester City striker missed a second-half penalty in the Boxing Day draw against Everton.

Everton recorded a third straight draw against a marquee away opponent at City, with Iliman Ndiaye's first-half goal canceling out Bernardo Silva's opener.

This is the 12th game in City's previous 13 in all competitions that City have failed to win, as problems continue to pile up for under-fire boss Pep Guardiola.

But things could have been very different for City if Haaland had converted from 12 yards early in the second half.

Savinho was tracked down by Vitalii Mykolenko inside the box, with referee Simon Hooper wasting no time in pointing to the spot.

Although there were no complaints from the Everton players regarding the decision, Coleman intended to frustrate Haaland as much as possible before stepping in to take the penalty.

The Irishman was seen in conversation with Haaland, who didn't look too happy with Coleman's presence in the penalty area.

When asked by Amazon Prime about the confrontation, Coleman remained tight-lipped about what he said to the Norwegian superstar.

A laughing Coleman said: “No comment,” before presenter Dan Walker asked if it was a festive message.

Coleman continued: “Yeah, Merry Christmas. We came here with the intention of making a point and sometimes you'll do whatever you can to win. There was no swearing or anything like that .”

The veteran right-back was shown a yellow card for his efforts, but he will gladly take it given teammate Jordan Pickford made the save.

Despite dropping even more points, Guardiola was quick to praise his players in his post-match debriefing, insisting his City side “played well”.

The Catalan said: “If you ask me about today's performance, we did what we did. When we play badly, I say in the press conference and I say they were better, we were not good enough But today was not the case against a top team, one of the best in terms of clean sheets, the chances we had and not just the penalty. , a lot.

“But football is about winning, football is about scoring goals and not conceding and we have always done that. And this season or this last month, month and a half, we are not capable of doing that. TO DO.”

He continued: “The first half was brilliant, the first 10, 15 minutes [of the second-half] until the penalty was really good. From their first arrival, they scored a goal. Of course, at the end of the transition, we could suffer defeat.

“But when you analyze the result, of course we are not satisfied, but the performance and what we did, the guys again, with the situation we are in, was brilliant. Of course we don't score not the goals we need.”

City return to action on Sunday afternoon when they travel to relegation-threatened Leicester City before welcoming West Ham United to the Etihad for their first match of 2025.