‘Disgrace’ – Incandescent Erling Haaland pulled away after wrestling Porto player in furious clash on ground

Erling Haaland had to be dragged away from a heated incident during Manchester City’s Champions League win over Porto.

Tensions boiled over in second-half stoppage time as Man City began their European campaign with a 2-0 win in Portugal thanks to a brace from Haaland.

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And the striker was at the centre of the flashpoint, clashing with Porto’s Pablo Rosario and sparking a melee on the pitch.

Haaland was hurled to the ground by Rosario, with both players booked by referee Szymon Marciniak.

But talkSPORT’s Adrian Durham wasn’t impressed with the Porto man at all and took issue with Marciniak’s officiating of the incident.

“Really naive refereeing,” Durham said on air. “Rosario’s basically trying to get Haaland sent off and it’s a disgrace. Really poor refereeing, that.”

It wasn’t the first coming together of its nature on the night at the Estadio do Dragao.

Security staff had to step in as players and officials from both sides clashed at half time.

Porto had taken issue after Gabri Veiga was left bleeding from his head after being accidentally struck by Marc Guehi’s trailing arm during an aerial challenge.

Guehi escaped any punishment – much to Porto’s dismay – on a night which, perhaps surprisingly given how things flared up, saw only three players booked: Rosario, Haaland and his City teammate Josko Gvardiol.

That late scuffle aside, it was a celebratory, historic occasion for Haaland.

In notching his fourth and fifth goals of the season, and his 166th and 167th overall for City, he moved up to third on the club’s all-time leading scorers list.

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The Norway star has overtaken 1920s City hero Tommy Johnson, who scored City goals.

It represents a remarkable achievement for Haaland, who only move to the Etihad Stadium four years ago.

Since then, he’s gone along at a truly prolific average of 0.82 goals per game in all competitions.

The 26-year-old now has only Eric Brook (177 goals) and Sergio Aguero (still well out in front on 260 goals) left to catch.

That being said, Haaland has already emulated Aguero in one respect, drawing level with him for the most Champions League goals for City with 36.

Haaland also goes clear of Bayern Munich legend Thomas Muller to take seventh place outright on the all-time list of leading Champions League scorers with 59 in total – at a remarkable average of exactly one a game.

For some comparison, it took Lionel Messi 80 Champions League appearances to reach 60 goals in the competition.