Erling Haaland problem revealed as Man City fans criticise ‘absolutely dead’ Etihad in ‘boring’ draw

Thierry Henry highlighted something Erling Haaland “can’t do” after Manchester City played out a “boring” draw against Inter Milan at the “absolutely dead” Etihad Stadium on Wednesday.

City never really got going against the Serie A champions in a rematch of the 2023 Champions League final, with Inter being the better team for most of the game. hardly any consequences, apart from hopefully stopping Arsenal fans from moaning about Martin Odegaard's injury.

It confirmed our belief that the new Champions League format will be a bit crap and Peter Schmeichel – a pundit for CBS Sports – agreed that it was “really boring” and blamed City fans for failing to create a great 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'm sorry to say that. I thought Inter stopped City really well.”

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

Schmeichel replied: “That's because I love good football, I like the enthusiasm of the crowd and it was dead, the Etihad was absolutely dead. The only people we could hear were the Inter fans. They were good but there was no atmosphere at the Etihad today. Normally you think of 'big European nights' but that wasn't the case for them.”

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Erling Haaland had the chance to score his 100th goal in just his 104th game for Manchester City – a ridiculous record for a human – but missed the few half chances he had and was otherwise barely involved.

And what has become inevitable on the rare occasions when he fails to score is that Henry has lashed out at the Norwegian because, in his opinion, he is incapable of contributing to the build-up play like Harry Kane.

Speaking to CBS Sports, Henry said: “I don't think he can do that, no. Go to the middle and play like [Harry] Kane can do that. Not at the moment. I think he can improve. Not at the moment.”

Micah Richards replied, “No, but he doesn’t have to.”

Henry added: “He will, he doesn’t need [to]”City are always on the ball with their wingers, you don't have to do that often. I just wanted to say that at the moment I don't think he can do that. At some point he will, but at the moment he can't.”

After the game, Pep Guardiola said he was pleased with his team’s performance.

The Spaniard said: “We played against a really, really difficult team – the champions from Italy. A class team in all areas.”

“I'm really, really happy with our game. I liked everything about my team today, just everything.”

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