Erling Haaland apologises after Man Utd controversy as Man City star goes viral

 It takes a lot to keep Erling Haaland out of the spotlight, but for over an hour at Old Trafford on Sunday, the Manchester City talisman was nowhere to be seen. Maybe it was his lack of activity that allowed him to ghost in behind the Manchester United defence and net what proved to be the winning goal.

As ever, it wasn't without controversy. Pro Ref have since come out and said there was an error, and the Haaland goal should have been ruled out for an offside involving Enzo Fernandez. Alas, as was the case with Bruno Fernandes' equally controversial strike in the 2023 Manchester derby, the goal stood and City won the match.

Unsurprisingly, Haaland was basking in the glory post-match, and even took to the Old Trafford pitch for a celebratory selfie. The only issue was, the photo - which has since been liked over 2.8million times on Instagram - was taken in the background of a live Premier League broadcast.

Owen Hargreaves, formerly of both City and United, was being interviewed about his thoughts on the match for Premier League Productions by Ian Irving, while Haaland could be seen in the background taking the picture. This was picked up by the official Premier League account, which posted images of Haaland gatecrashing the broadcast.

Haaland himself replied to this, commenting: "Sorry," with a laughing emoji on the Premier League's post. That comment alone garnered over 54,000 likes.

Overall, as well as his exploits on the pitch, it was a day of going viral for Haaland, with the Norway international sharing a post-match snap with professional strongman and actor Thor Bjornsson in the Old Trafford tunnel. Bjornsson shared the picture to X, with the post having been viewed over 3.7m times and over 110,000 likes.

On the derby win, Haaland told the official City channel: "How I'm feeling is exactly how you think I'm feeling! I'm feeling amazing. Wow.

"The effort we made today, the amount of duels we won. A bit of a different approach to the game when we got the red card. You have to kind of stick more together and take the chances you get them.

"We had to adapt. I'm so proud in the end that we managed to win and the personality we showed when we got the red card to just keep the ball is amazing."

It's on to the Carabao Cup for City this week, with Norwich City the visitors to the Etihad Stadium. After that, the Blues will play Sunderland at home in their final match before the extended international break.