Striker Haaland had a fight with Brighton’s Van Hecke in the final minutes of the match. After that, coach Pep Guardiola went to the Brighton player to “teach him a lesson”.

In round 11 of the Premier League, Man City suffered a 1-2 defeat against Brighton. This was the fourth consecutive defeat for Man City in all competitions. For the first time in his career, coach Pep Guardiola experienced such a long losing streak.

Haaland and Van Hecke wrestled at the end of the match

Pep Guardiola was involved in a heated exchange with Jan Paul van Hecke

Haaland opened the scoring for Man City in the 23rd minute, but then Brighton scored two goals by Joao Pedro and Matt O’Riley to win.

Notably, with the goal in this match, Haaland had 75 goals after 77 matches in the Premier League. He is the player who reached 75 goals in the fastest time. The old record belonged to the legend with 93 matches.

However, in addition to this milestone, Haaland received bad news when he lost the match. Not only that, he also left an ugly image after the match. In the 90+8 minute, the Norwegian striker had a dispute with Brighton defender Van Hecke.

First, Van Hecke grabbed Haaland’s collar. Not to be trifled with, the Man City striker grabbed the Brighton defender’s collar and pulled him up. Witnessing that situation, many people imagined that these two players were competing in judo, not football.

Immediately, players from both teams rushed in to prevent an unfortunate incident from happening. Finally, referee Samuel Barrott showed a yellow card to punish both players.

It is worth mentioning that after the match, coach Pep Guardiola went directly to Van Hecke to shake hands and say something to his opponent. After the match, the Spanish coach said he advised Van Hecke to stand up after the collision with Haaland in the penalty area. Pep Guardiola stressed that Van Hecke defended very well throughout the match and congratulated Brighton on their victory.

The Spaniard said: “Van Hecke was very strong against Erling Haaland. I told him: ‘When Haaland stands up to fight, stand up and fight. Don’t throw yourself on the pitch like that’. Anyway, Van Hecke and Brighton had a great match.”

After the defeat to Brighton, Man City have only 23 points from 11 matches. They are 5 points behind leaders Liverpool.