15 March 2023 , 10:45
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Jamie O'Hara has slammed the decision to award Manchester City a penalty in their thumping 7-0 Champions League win over RB Leipzig - and branded it as a "disgrace".
Pep Guardiola's side were given a spot-kick in the first-half when VAR adjudged Benjamin Henrichs to have handled the ball from Rodri's header. Not one City player appealed while Henrichs could not believe what he was seeing.
Nevertheless, Haaland stepped up from the spot and emphatically dispatched it to give City the lead. It gave Guardiola's side a platform and they doubled their advantage through the Norwegian, before he quickly completed a quick-fire hat-trick just before the break.
It was one-way traffic in the second-half as Haaland added another two to take his tally up to five for the evening, while Kevin de Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan also found the net. This is the sixth successive time City have reached the quarter-finals following a 8-1 aggregate win over Leipzig.
However, when asked about the penalty decision, O'Hara was not impressed. He told talkSPORT: "The penalty decision was an absolute disgrace! The first half an hour from the referee ruined the spectacle. It was probably the worst decision I have ever seen. It brushes his arm, it's not handball and it isn't football."
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Meanwhile, Alan Shearer also blasted the decision to give City a penalty. The former Newcastle forward tweeted: "What a pile of s*** the hand ball law is. #pathetic #MCIRBL."
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RB Leipzig players were left incensed by the decision to award City a penalty for their opener (Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)Rio Ferdinand also joined in the frustration and aired his views at half-time while City were 3-0 up. He said: "The letter of the law would say it's a penalty but this is a bad rule. He (Henrichs) is not looking at the ball. When he's jumping his hands have to be around that area and I think it's a bad decision... or I should say bad rule."
Haaland's five-goal haul against Leipzig takes him to 39 for this season, however, the 22-year-old supposedly told Guardiola that he wanted to stay on to score a double hat-trick. But the Spaniard admitted he took Haaland off for his own good.
"If he achieves this milestone at 22, 23, it will be boring his life," Guardiola said. "He wouldn't have a target to reach in the future. Here and everywhere. That's why I make a substitution.
"I didn't know about Messi with Leverkusen (when he scored five against them in 2012), but I make a substitution because normally when the game is over we want them to play. He scored five goals. The problem is every time we don't score two or three he will be criticised. This is the reality."