What was behind Erling Haaland's way of celebrating after his opening goal in the Manchester Derby? Well, quite a lot. Because Manchester United's fans were challenging the Manchester City striker with songs about his father, who once received a vicious kick from Roy Keane.
The tackle by Keane on Alf Inge Haaland during the city derby in 2001 is infamous. The Irish midfielder later admitted that it was intentional when he severely injured the Norwegian international. It was an act of revenge for the cruciate ligament injury Keane suffered four years earlier during a clash with Haaland.
On Sunday, a section of the United supporters seized that incident to taunt Haaland. Before City's goal-scorer made it 0-1 from a penalty, supporters were shouting 'Keano' and 'Haaland, how's your dad?' at the 22-year-old striker. He then celebrated notably fervently towards the Stretford End after converting the penalty.
After the match, Haaland reacted to that moment at the BBC. He made it seem as though it all didn't bother him much. 'People were singing Keano at me. I don’t know why they did that,' he said with a telling smile. 'It is what it is. It was a nice celebration and a beautiful match.'
Haaland scored again later and assisted on Phil Foden's third goal. According to Pep Guardiola, the Norwegian was not extra motivated by the taunts from the United crowd. 'Honestly, we did not talk about it. I think Erling is always motivated to score at Old Trafford.'
Incidentally, Roy Keane was also confronted with the songs sung by the United supporters after the game. The 52-year-old Irishman pretended he didn’t know what it was about either at Sky Sports. 'I wouldn’t know,' the former captain joked. 'Maybe they meant Robbie Keane.'
