Barcelona 3-3 Man City: Erling Haaland's dive for Riyad Mahrez's penalty | OneFootball

Barcelona and Manchester City‘s charity match on Wednesday evening was certainly an entertaining affair.

The two European giants locked horns at Camp Nou to raise money for ALS research and there were goals aplenty.

City opened the scoring on the night in the 21st through summer arrival Julian Alvarez, before a well-taken goal by Chelsea target Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang saw the two teams go in level at the break.

Barcelona moved 2-1 ahead in the 66th minute thanks to Frenkie de Jong, although the visitors fired back just four minutes later through Cole Palmer.

Xavi Hernandez’s side then looked as if they’d scored the winner when Memphis Depay rippled the back of the net, but City had other ideas.

In the ninth minute of stoppage-time, which came about after Luke Mbete suffered a nasty-looking head injury from a clash with Andreas Christensen, Riyad Mahrez equalised from the penalty spot.

The Algerian winger shouldn’t have been given the chance to make it 3-3, though.

Why do we say that? Well, because the penalty only came about after the referee fell for a laughable dive by Erling Haaland.

There appeared to be the slightest of touches on the giant striker from Christensen inside the box, but it was certainly nowhere near enough to be classed as a foul.

The fact Haaland looked back at his opponent before throwing himself to the floor said it all…

Video: Haaland’s dive vs Barcelona

Yeah, that’s not a great look. Just imagine the chaos on social media if that was Neymar or Mohamed Salah!

Haaland only played the final 20 or so minutes of the match after replacing Alvarez and he was actually given a quite incredible reception by the Barcelona fans when Pep Guardiola sent him to warm up.

Video: Haaland was actually applauded by Barcelona fans

Diving, what a way to repay a heartwarming show of support from the opposition’s fans…

But aside from his theatrics against Barcelona, Haaland’s start to life as a City player has been pretty darn good.

In Premier League action, the former Borussia Dortmund man has three goals in three games, including a match-winning brace away at West Ham United on the opening weekend of the season.

Up next for City and Haaland is a home match against Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon, the team that triumphed 2-0 at the Etihad in 2021/22.

Guardiola’s side actually failed to score in both their fixtures against the south London outfit last season…