Erling Haaland celebrated Manchester City’s opening goal on Sunday by recreating the robot extravaganza first made famous by Peter Crouch all those years ago.
Peter Crouch claimed he “walked like they could run” after watching Erling Haaland’s reenactment of the iconic robot extravaganza. The former England frontman first pulled off the move during international duty in 2006.
The moment is still talked about a lot, with Manchester City copying his move to score their first goal against Bournemouth on Sunday afternoon. Crouch completed his first robot extravaganza 19 years ago after scoring for England in a friendly against Hungary, and repeated it a few days later in the win over Jamaica.
The now-retired star was quick to comment on social media after seeing Haaland imitate his celebration, joking that he had started the trend so other players could follow suit. Crouch caused another celebration when he scored his 100th Premier League goal while playing for Stoke.
Haaland’s brace helped City get back to winning ways, taking his tally to 13 in the Premier League this season. He is in top form and could still match his record for most goals in a single season, which he set in 2022/23.
The Norwegian insisted he is determined to get his team back on winning ways after last weekend’s setback. He told Sky Sports: “It’s an important win. It’s good to bounce back from a bad loss away. It was good. I tried to contribute to the team by doing my job.”
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“I’m glad we won. We have two more important games, so I want us to stay focused. I didn’t score in the last game, but I’m trying to help the team win. That’s my goal, and it doesn’t matter if I score or help win a duel. I want to help the team get better. That’s my job.”
Haaland has scored 17 goals in all competitions and continues to be City’s go-to player in the final third. Manager Pep Guardiola pulled him off when he was aiming for a hat-trick, but admitted his current numbers are similar to those of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
“That’s what it’s like when you play with Messi and Ronaldo. His influence is huge,” the City manager said. “See that guy’s numbers? Of course he’s at that level. Messi and Ronaldo have been doing it for 15 years, but this is that level. The first goal, the way he shot the ball, it was like, ‘I’m going to score.’
“He has that hungry spirit, which is top-notch. We also talked about how incredibly coachable and manageable he is. I’m hard on Haaland sometimes, but he’s open-minded. He lives for the goal and sometimes the pressure doesn’t keep him going for 90 minutes, but that’s normal.”
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