Visitors’ captain and goalkeeper wheel out array of skulduggery and mind games to distract Manchester City striker at crucial moment
The Norwegian missed, though, after an impressively coordinated attempt to put him off by Seamus Coleman and Jordan Pickford. Here is how they did it:
50min 13sec: Foul by Mykolenko on Savinho
The second half is five minutes old when Everton full-back Vitalii Mykolenko unwisely swings at the ball, missing and connecting with Savinho.
50min 16sec: Penalty awarded
After giving himself a short time to think, referee Simon Hooper points to the spot.
50min 25sec: Coleman protests
Coleman goes to Hooper to argue the case, presumably suggesting Savinho was slipping before contact was made. Hooper is not interested.
51min 2sec: Mind games begin
There is a pause while VAR checks the decision, but Coleman has already started the mind games. Haaland has the ball in his hand and Coleman is following the striker to the edge of the area, putting his hand in front of his mouth so television cameras cannot pick up his exact words.
51min 8sec: Hooper gets involved
Hooper decides to intervene as Haaland walks towards the spot, putting himself between Coleman and the Norwegian and making it clear to the Everton captain that his behaviour must stop.
51min 11sec: Akanji’s spot protection comes into play
While Haaland has been pacing around the area his City team-mate Manuel Akanji has been standing over the penalty spot, presumably to stop it being scuffed by Everton players. With Iliman Ndiaye also getting involved that means there are now four people (including Coleman and Hooper) in Haaland’s way.
51min 21sec: Pickford checks his water bottle
As Hooper clears the penalty area, goalkeeper Pickford decides to go for a wander, and also checks his water bottle – one that photos show has detail statistics attached to it of where each potential City penalty-taker is likely to shoot.
51min 24sec: Coleman has another bite at Haaland
The penalty area is almost cleared as Coleman decides to have one more go at Haaland, walking up to the striker and saying something to him. Haaland shoves him away, and Hooper books the Everton captain.
51min 32sec: Pickford argues the point
With Coleman having retreated, Pickford decides to argue the booking, walking eight or nine yards from his goal to speak to Hooper.
52min 5sec: Pickford pulls his faces
The penalty area is now clear, so now it’s over to Pickford. We have seen the England goalkeeper excel in these situations before – notably in the Euro 2024 quarter-final shoot-out win against Switzerland – and he pulls out one of those tricks here, making a series of faces to put Haaland off his stride, all while jumping on his line.
52min 15sec: Haaland misses...
Two minutes and two seconds after the penalty was awarded, Haaland takes the kick. It is struck low to Pickford’s right but the goalkeeper easily reaches it, pushing it away.
52min 17sec:... and is offside when scoring the rebound
Josko Gvardiol gets to the rebound first and heads it back across goal where Haaland nods home. The Norwegian knows he is well offside, though, and does not even begin to celebrate as the ball hits the back of the net.
52min 21sec: Everton’s mind games have won
With the offside duly awarded, Everton celebrate a perfectly executed plan designed to put Haaland off and keep their side in the game.
52min 33sec: Pickford’s wink
And in case there were any doubts over what had happened, Pickford does an exaggerated wink as he saunters forward taking the acclaim of his team-mates.