Haaland berates Donnarumma on camera as City's costly errors seal Villa win

Erling Haaland was caught on camera berating goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma during Manchester City’s 2-1 Premier League defeat to Aston Villa at Villa Park, with the Italian’s costly second-half fumble ultimately settling the contest.

Nicolas Jackson gave Villa the lead inside six minutes, pouncing on a Marc Guehi error to fire home emphatically. City worked their way back into the match and drew level when Haaland headed in an Iliman Ndiaye cross in the 52nd minute.

The equaliser proved short-lived. On the hour mark, Jackson struck again with a fierce effort straight at Donnarumma, who fumbled the shot and allowed it to squirm beneath him and into the net. City were unable to find a response in the closing stages, leaving them with a defeat that manager Enzo Maresca described as entirely avoidable.

Footage from the first half, however, revealed that tensions had surfaced well before Donnarumma’s blunder. In the 33rd minute, City conceded a free-kick when Guehi brought down Jackson on the counter-attack. As Villa prepared to take the set piece from just outside the penalty area, Donnarumma briefly left his line to contest the decision with the referee. Haaland took immediate exception, and was clearly seen gesturing towards the 27-year-old and urging him back to his position.

Donnarumma was not ultimately tested by that particular free-kick — Johan Manzambi put the effort over — but the underlying friction between the Norwegian striker and his goalkeeper was plain to see.

Reflecting on the result, Maresca was candid about the two defensive lapses that cost his side. “Absolutely, both,” he said when asked whether the goals were avoidable. “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. We will learn from that.”