Three things we learned – AS Monaco 2-2 Manchester City

Manchester City suffered late disappointment as a controversial late Eric Dier penalty earned a point for AS Monaco in the UEFA Champions League.

The Blues had been ahead for the entirety of the second half due to two Erling Haaland goals either side of a Jordan Teze wonderstrike, but Dier converted past Gianluigi Donnarumma after Nico Gonzalez’s foot was deemed to be too high on the Englishman, despite getting a slight nick on the ball.

That means City have now gone five games in a row without winning away from home in Europe, after defeats to Real Madrid, PSG, Juventus and Sporting last season.

Here are three things we learned from the draw in the south of France:

Haaland is at his absolute best

Manchester City’s striker is playing at his absolute best right now, scoring goals at a level of inevitability that we haven’t seen for almost three years.

Haaland scored his 134th and 135th goals in 154 appearances for City against Monaco, the coming from pouncing on a ball in behind and lobbing over the keeper and the second a proper 6 ‘4 centre forward’s goal – rising high to power a Nico O’Reilly cross beyond goalkeeper Philipp Kohn.

The rest of the team still have some adapting to do to get to Haaland’s elite level, but whilst the Norwegian is performing as he is, this City team will always be a goal threat.

Refereeing didn’t decide that game

My initial instinct was that the foul by Nico was a deserved penalty; he’s always running a risk putting his foot that high and his shin did touch Dier’s head.

But on reflection, it’s harsh that a penalty was given when it was shown he’d won the ball and his challenge didn’t really impact the shot.

Either way, City should have had that game wrapped up long before the incident, and they even should have won it in the final few seconds after that.

Tijjani Reijnders and Phil Foden both smacked the crossbar, and Haaland had a handful of half chances that a player of his quality could easily have scored.

And at the very end, Josko Gvardiol had Haaland free in the middle, but opted to shoot and saw his shot blocked easily by the Monaco defenders.

City have to find their ruthless edge more consistently if they’re going to compete for the biggest titles in the Premier League and Champions League again.

Rodri shouldn’t have started

It’s clear to me that Rodri is still reasonably far off the pace, and with Pep Guardiola emphasising the extreme pain the 29-year-old felt in his formerly injured knee just three days before, throwing him in from the start seemed stupid.

Particularly given the fact Nico came on and played well. The former Porto player was tidy, composed and aggressive, putting in an all round good defensive midfield performance.

Add to that Mateo Kovacic’s return to first team squads, and I think that whilst it’s difficult to say no to a player who desperately wants to impact the team, Rodri must only start at least one game a week for the foreseeable future.