Former England and Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney believes Erling Haaland was designated *not* to take penalties before Manchester City`s FA Cup final match.
In the first half of the final, City were awarded a penalty. Instead of stepping up himself, the Norwegian striker handed the ball to teammate Omar Marmoush. Notably, Haaland had not scored in any of his previous four appearances at Wembley Stadium.
Wembley is one of only three English grounds where Haaland has played but hasn`t managed to find the back of the net, the others being Brentford`s Gtech Community Stadium and Liverpool`s Anfield.
When Tyrick Mitchell fouled Bernardo Silva in the box, creating the penalty opportunity in the 36th minute, many expected Haaland to take it. However, he deferred to Marmoush, whose resulting penalty was saved by Crystal Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson. Haaland was unable to convert the rebound.
This season has seen Haaland miss three of his seven penalties. In contrast, Marmoush had a perfect record from the spot before the final, having successfully converted all four for Eintracht Frankfurt in the first half of the campaign.
Appearing as a pundit for the BBC, Micah Richards questioned Haaland`s decision to let Marmoush take the penalty. Rooney offered his perspective:
“I don`t think he`s given it away. I think it`s been taken off him before the game, I think it`s been decided [pre-match].”
When host Gary Lineker commented that “you can`t override the manager,” Rooney countered:
“There`s moments you can. And I think Haaland should have taken the penalty.”
Earlier in the match, Dean Henderson was fortunate to avoid a red card. The former Manchester United goalkeeper handled the ball deliberately outside his penalty area, denying Haaland a potential scoring chance. VAR reviewed the incident.
Lineker reported at half-time what VAR had communicated: “The direction in which Erling Haaland was going made it possible, but not an obvious goal scoring opportunity.”
Rooney reacted to this by calling for the abolition of VAR in football.
Crystal Palace were already leading the match 1-0 at the time of the penalty, following Eberechi Eze`s goal in the 16th minute.
