Erling Haaland fires staggering accusation at Italy star after bust-up | Football | Sport

Erling Haaland has claimed that Italy defender Gianluca Mancini kept touching his bottom during Norway’s win over the Azzurri, but the unwanted attention only spurred on the Manchester City striker as Norway booked their World Cup spot in spectacular style.

The prolific forward netted twice as Norway claimed four goals to cap off a flawless qualifying run, triumphing in all eight matches, although the encounter wasn’t without controversy. Italy keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, Haaland’s City team-mate, was forced to restrain him.

Mancini was evidently attempting to wind up Haaland and repeatedly grabbed the striker’s posterior, which infuriated the Norwegian international.

He eventually challenged his adversary with heated words exchanged between the duo as Haaland revealed details of the confrontation.

Haaland told TV2: «At 1-1 he started to touch my ass, and I thought ‘what are you doing?’ Then I got a little fired up and said to him, ‘Thank you so much for the motivation, let’s f****** have it’.»

The City goal machine would go on to find the net twice within two minutes to seal Italy’s fate.

The match remained deadlocked at 1-1 with a quarter of an hour remaining before Haaland continued his remarkable scoring streak.

His opener was a thunderous effort into the roof of the goal after fellow City player Oscar Bobb had released him.

His second strike, arriving less than sixty seconds later, was a tap-in from close quarters.

Wolves striker Jorgen Strand Larsen put the finishing touches on the rout at the San Siro with a fourth goal in the 93rd minute. Haaland said: «It’s probably the sickest result. The fact that we come here and win 4-1 is absolutely sick, and it shows that we are a bit unpredictable. It’s pretty good for everyone to know.»

Norway will be making their first World Cup appearance since 1998, before Haaland was even born. The striker has been instrumental in helping them achieve this feat, scoring an impressive 16 goals during the qualifying stage, matching the record set by Poland’s Robert Lewandowski.

Haaland has now found the back of the net in 11 consecutive World Cup qualifiers dating back to 2021.

The Norwegian team travelled to Italy knowing that only an extremely unlikely nine-goal swing could prevent them from securing the automatic qualification spot, and they accomplished their mission with relative ease.