Alf Inge Haaland, the father of Manchester City striker Erling Haaland, was removed from his seat by security guards during the 1-1 draw between Man City and Real Madrid.
A video posted on social media showed Alf, 50, waving to Real fans after Kevin De Bruyne’s equaliser and cupping his ear to them. There were allegations that food was thrown from the hospitality box in which Alf was sitting, although no evidence to suggest that was the case.
Alf was then moved out of the hospitality area by security guards who are everywhere at the Bernabeu on a match night.
Alf said that the decision to move him and his friends was taken after they celebrated the second half equaliser scored by Kevin de Bruyne.
Alf, the agent to his 22-year-old son, was extensively courted by Real executives last year and the beginning of this one as they tried to convince Erling to sign for the Spanish club. For 18 months at least he and the France forward Kylian Mbappe were heavily trailed in the Spanish media as the two primary targets to join Real last summer. In the event Erling went to City and Mbappe signed a new contract at Paris Saint-Germain.
There is still an expectation that Erling will play some of his career at Real should he continue on the remarkable goalscoring form. He struggled to make an impact at the Bernabeu, however, with just 21 touches all game – the fewest of any of the 22 players who started the match.
Pep Guardiola hinted that he may make some adjustments to try to get his top scorer more involved next time around. “It’s not easy to find the spaces for Erling,” he said. “Maybe we try to adjust something in the second leg to be a little bit more fluid and find more rhythm because we play at home and at home we feel more comfortable with our people.”
Meanwhile, an angry Carlo Ancelotti claims that City’s equaliser should have been ruled out because the ball went out of play in the build-up to the goal.
“The ball was out of play,” the Real coach said. “I don’t understand why they did not use Var [to check it]. We could easily have won. We controlled the game well and after scoring we played well.”
Footage from Bein Sports showed the ball had gone out of play, although the the accuracy of this footage is not verified.
“Bein showed the ball was off the pitch,” Ancelotti said. “Technology said it and I don’t understand why VAR didn’t check it. The referee [Artur Dias] didn’t pay attention to many things tonight.”
‘Rudiger eats Haaland’: How the Spanish press reacted
By Jack de Menezes
Manchester City’s thrilling 1-1 draw against Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final first leg drew a mixed response from the Spanish press, with Carlo Ancelotti hailed for outsmarting Pep Guardiola and the two goalscorers celebrated for their brilliant efforts.
Vinicius Junior and Kevin De Bruyne scored either side of half-time to leave the tie finely poised heading back to the Etihad Stadium next week, putting City at a slight advantage given they will have a partisan home support behind them in the second leg, even though away goals are no longer taken into consideration.
Madrid-based Marca suggested that Madrid were unlucky not to get a win with Ancelotti’s supposedly superior tactics.
“The Italian’s plan is more effective than Guardiola’s”, claimed the Madrid daily, who have no love lost for Guardiola since his days as both player and manager at Barcelona.
The quip came below the headline “A final at the Etihad”, acknowledging that whoever emerges victorious in the second leg will be heavy favourites to go all the way despite the presence of AC Milan and Inter Milan on the other side of the semi-finals.
The newspaper also took a swipe at Erling Haaland for his anonymous display by claiming “[Antonio] Rudiger eats Haaland”.
On AS, the front-page headline is: “See you in Manchester”.
AS also looked at how ineffective Haaland was on Tuesday night and hailed the impact of Rudiger for “annulling” the threat of the Norwegian goalkeeper.
While it may have been tough viewing for Barcelona fans to see their arch rivals in the last four of the Champions League once again, their two newspapers gave the match the credit it deserved on their front pages.
Barcelona-based Sport ran the headline “Empate A Golazos”, loosely translated as “Tie of the wonder goals” while Mundo Deportivo teed up the “Manchester Decider” and praised Madrid goalkeeper Courtois for “stopping almost everything” to keep the tie at a deadlock heading into the second leg.
