adminFor the first time since he joined, the 20-goal Norwegian was not included in the starting line-up and stayed on the bench all night.
And for the first time since mid-April – 23 games ago – his new club failed to find the net.
This hard-earned point for Pep Guardiola’s men will – almost certainly – be enough to see them into the knock-out rounds in February.
But following the first-half dismissal of Sergio Gomez, they were made to work hard by the spirited Danes.
Coupled with a first-half penalty miss by Riyad Mahrez, it made for just the sort of work-out the manager didn’t want before facing rivals Liverpool this weekend.
Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva were also benched with one eye on the trip to Anfield no doubt – and City were off-colour all night.
The gulf in class between these two teams could not have been clearer at the Etihad six days ago as City ran riot in a five-goal win.
Yet the Danes are a different proposition at their Parken Stadium and have lost only one of their 13 Champions League games here.
That was way back in 2013 against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Real Madrid and their noisy fans were determined that proud record should stay intact.
Their last three games in the competition here have all finished goalless so maybe the City boss wasn’t kidding when he predicted a difficult evening.
Yet this team could have made it much more straight-forward for themselves.
Julian Alvarez – given his first chance to play up top on his own – got in down the left and saw his shot tipped past the post by home keeper Kamil Grabara.
Portuguese ref Artur Dias somehow failed to spot the save and gave a goal-kick and maybe we should have known something was afoot.
City thought they had the lead on 11 minutes when Riyad Mahrez laid the ball back to Rodri whose 25-yard shot flew into the top corner – but the visitors’ celebrations were cut short.
The VAR spotted a handball from the Algerian – although the official needed to watch a few replays before deciding to disallow the goal.
Minutes later the ref took centre stage again as Manuel Akanji’s header hit Nicolai Boilesen on the arm and after another VAR check the penalty was given.
With Haaland watching on from the bench, Mahrez grabbed the ball but his penalty was tame and Grabara made a comfortable save low to his right. The Algerian insists he remains the penalty taker for the champions – but has now missed two of his last three. No doubt he knows who is breathing down his neck.
His hopes of finding his way back into Guardiola’s good book after a disappointing start to the season will not have been helped by this.
The raucous home crowd turned the volume up a notch and on the half hour there was more drama involving the video assistant.
Hakon Haraldsson looked to have wriggled clear before being pulled back by Gomez – only for the referee to wave play on despite having a clear view.
Seconds later he was told to go to his monitor for a third time and once again he agreed he had made a mistake and brandished the red card.
It was just the third start the Spain Under-21 international has made for City – and he left his manager with a problem to solve.
Mahrez’s miserable night was complete as he was immediately withdrawn and Ruben Dias thrown on to shore up the defence.
For once this season, City were not having it their own way and the Danes – back in eighth place in their domestic league after 10 games -were sensing a famous scalp. – The Sun.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter