Manchester City won a free-kick about 45 yards from goal and what happened next can't have sat well with Sam Allardyce.
The new Leeds United boss, and presumably still host of the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast, could only watch from his technical area as Pep Guardiola's side spurned the opportunity to get it up top for the big man. Instead, Julian Alvarez and Aymeric Laporte passed it between each other like they were in the park as Leeds forward Patrick Bamford stood yards away looking unclear about what they were doing so casually.
Suddenly, the ball was shuffled forward to Kevin De Bruyne and a host of runners were charging into the box ready for the delivery. Instead, the Belgian went out to Riyad Mahrez and yet again Haaland was snubbed as the Algerian ignored everyone in the box and laid it square for Ilkay Gundogan.
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As a man of Allardyce's knowledge will know, you don't win football matches by not going for the goal. Except that tippy-tappy nonsense had splintered any form of shape Leeds had and Gundogan swept home the ball to give City the lead after just 19 minutes.
Eight minutes later, Gundogan could even afford the luxury of a touch after being found by Mahrez again in a similar position before firing past Joel Robles to double the City lead. Leeds had been passed to death and their footballing Messiah will have to wait for another chance to prove he is among the best managers in the game.
If that feels unnecessarily harsh on the manager of a relegation-threatened team low on form and confidence up against the best version of City, it was Allardyce who deliberately chose to talk himself up this week when there was no need to. On this evidence, chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak won't be rushing to test the veteran's claim that he could challenge for a Treble with this team.
The Treble is a game closer for City and this 2-1 win has helped them in two competitions. Not only are they now four points clear of Arsenal having played the same number of games, but Guardiola was able to rest several key first-team players ahead of the trip to Madrid.
It was a real gamble from the manager, considering what had happened against Leicester City recently. A few weeks ago, City swept into a commanding lead against the relegation-threatened Foxes before Guardiola made what he later admitted to be too many changes and nearly threw away the three points.
That seemed to jolt Guardiola and, remembering the mistakes of previous years where too much tinkering had cost them rhythm and momentum, he has rotated less. However, whether because of the magnitude of Madrid or because so many of his players are simply knackered - "we need fresh minds and fresh legs" was the explanation given before the game - the City boss made seven changes for this match; that's more than he made for the FA Cup semi-final against Championship opposition.
It was hardly a terrible lineup, but as exciting as it will have been for fans to see Alvarez, De Bruyne and Erling Haaland start for the first time together in the league there was the question of how the XI could accommodate them all. After so long without upsetting the balance, was this XI risking it?
Ultimately, the gulf between the clubs was so big that it did not matter. City purred along like the machine they have become and the only thing that stopped the scoring becoming a cricket score was Haaland having one of those afternoons where he decides he's going to get his misses for the month out of the way in one go.
There were misses of every kind from Haaland, often accompanied by a gasp of disbelief from the same set of supporters that have dropped their jaws at the same player all season for a very different reason. It wasn't that Allardyce had succeeded in cutting off his supply, he had just been extremely lucky to be one of the few managers all year that the Norwegian has had an off-day against.
Even when he does have an off day Haaland tends to get one but for the first time in over two months he failed to score at the Etihad.....Guardiola will hope normal service is resumed in Madrid.
The same will be said of Jack Grealish, John Stones, Rodri and Ruben Dias presumably after they were all given the luxury of watching events from the bench. They have been among Guardiola's most-used players this season and it seemed obvious that they were being rested ahead of their Champions League semi-final rather than taken out of the starting XI for any other reason.
All four had prime seats to see another blockbuster performance from De Bruyne, back in the team after missing the last two with injury. Any idea that it would take the Belgian any kind of time to get back up to match speed was quashed almost as soon as the first whistle and were it not for Haaland's bad day in front of goal there could have been at least two more assists to add to his name.
One fly in the City ointment came early in the second half when Nathan Ake, recently back from a hamstring injury, sat down and asked to come off. He stayed on the bench for the remainder of the game, but may complicate Guardiola's thinking for Madrid.
The manager will not be allowing any further niceties from Haaland to his teammates either. The Norwegian allowed Gundogan to take a late spot-kick that Phil Foden had won, only for the German's effort to be saved. Seconds after the manager had berated Haaland telling him he had to take it, Leeds went down the other end and scored to make for a nervier final few minutes than it should have been.
Nevertheless, the Blues will fly to the Spanish capital on the back of ten straight Premier League wins to put more pressure on an Arsenal side that had led the Premier League for so long. Sunday's trip to an in-form Newcastle will be even harder for them knowing they kick off four points behind.
Another three points and the perfect set-up for their Champions League semi-final made for a decent afternoon for City. It was just a shame about their tippy-tappy football.
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