Man City and Erling Haaland RAGE at referee Simon Hooper after he blew for a foul with Jack Grealish through on goal looking for an injury-time winner against Spurs, despite initially playing advantage

• The referee blew for a foul at the Etihad with Jack Grealish through on goal 
• Manchester City’s chaotic league game with Tottenham finished in a 3-3 draw
• Big Ange has lost three in a row, but no chance he changes his style: IAKO

There was frustration at the Etihad when the referee Simon Hooper blew for a foul just as Jack Grealish was running in on goal.

The incident came in stoppage time of an action-packed game between Manchester City and Tottenham, which was 3-3 at the time, and remained that way.

There was no offside flag indicated, and despite allowing play to continue, Hooper instead chose to call the play back for a foul – despite the obvious opportunity presented to Grealish. 

Grealish’s team-mate Erling Haaland was among those protesting at the call towards Hooper, despite ongoing calls for football officials to be respected with Mail Sport’s Stop Abusing Referees campaign. 

Speaking on Sky Sports, commentator Gary Neville said: ‘Oh no, oh no. Simon Hooper, he played on to start with, what’s he done there. 

Referee Simon Hooper was criticised for blowing up when Jack Grealish was through on goal

Erling Haaland, the player fouled in the incident, was leading the protests to the referee

Manchester City were searching for a stoppage time winner after a pulsating 3-3 draw

Haaland took to X (formerly Twitter) to express his frustration with the late decision made

Mail Sport has launched a campaign to stop the abuse of referees at all levels of the game

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‘He did play the advantage that was real surprise, Haaland gets fouled and he lets that go a bit and then blows there. He see’s the pass, really strange one.’

One social reaction accompanying a video of the incident read: ‘So Haaland was fouled, gets straight up and plays the ball with the advantage to Grealish who was then in the clear and Simon Hooper blows the whistle for the foul.

‘Absolutely atrocious officiating.’

Tottenham shocked the hosts with an early goal through Son Heung-min, but Manchester City took a 2-1 lead into the break with a Son own goal and a strike by Phil Foden.

Giovani Lo Celso pulled the scores level in the 69th minute, before Grealish regained Man City’s lead ten minutes from time.

Dejan Kulusevski equalised for Spurs in the last minute of normal time at the Etihad, before the late drama including the referee blowing up at a bad time for the hosts.  

More to follow…  

Hooper initially appeared to play advantage after the foul on Haaland, but changed his mind

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