Wayne Rooney calls out Erling Haaland over FA Cup penalty with brutal Ronaldo comparison

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Manchester City were met with a 1-0 defeat against Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final on May 17 at Wembley Stadium.

Eberechi Eze netted the sole and winning goal for Crystal Palace, giving the Eagles their first-ever major trophy. Man City, meanwhile, missed out on their only shot of bringing home some silverware this season.

Even after having several opportunities to turn the game around, Man City slipped up and failed to open their scoring. One of the lost chances, which arguably costed Pep Guardiola's side the most, was Omar Marmoush failing to convert a penalty in the first half.

Man City were awarded a penalty in the 33rd minute after Tyrick Mitchell committed a foul on Bernardo Silva. Erling Haaland was seen holding the ball while VAR reviewed the referee's decision.

However, after the decision was confirmed by VAR, Haaland handed the ball over to Marmoush, who was denied by an excellent save by Crystal Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson.

With the match ending in a loss for Man City, the missed penalty became a bigger topic of discussion, with questions surfacing about the decision of Marmoush to take the spotkick over Haaland.

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Haaland was also on the receiving end of criticism for not taking the penalty, and Man United legend Wayne Rooney also had his opinions on the Norwegian star.

What did Wayne Rooney say about Erling Haaland?

In his ongoing decade-long senior career, Haaland has taken a total of 57 penalties, converting 49 of them, while missing eight. However, the 24-year-old, who is Man City's regular penalty taker, has missed three out of the seven spot-kicks he has attempted this season.

Many believe Haaland's inconsistency in front of goal this campaign is why the penalty was taken by Marmoush, who had never taken a spot-kick for City before.

Rooney, meanwhile, claimed that 'the thought of taking a penalty at Wembley might have been too much' for Haaland.

Drawing a comparison with Lionel Messi and former club teammate Cristiano Ronaldo, Rooney also mentioned (comments via GOAL) that the two greats would never have 'given that ball away' as Haaland did.

"Erling Haaland is a world-class forward, but when we are talking about Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, there is no way they are giving that ball away. That is what separates them two players from Erling Haaland or Kylian Mbappe and these players. They are selfish and they want to score every game," he said.

"When he misses chances I think you can see it gets to him and it does affect him. "Maybe the thought of taking a penalty at Wembley might have been too much for him. You never know, he is a human being," added Rooney.

Haaland's side will be returning to Premier League action on May 20, against Bournemouth at Etihad Stadium.

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