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Exclusive: Meet the Gibraltar international keeper who stopped Erling Haaland from scoring

Haaland

Dayle Coleing faced Erling Haaland's Norway and was able to do something not many can do - keep Haaland off the scoresheet.

How many goals will Erling Haaland score for Manchester City next season? That's the most common question in English football right now following City's high profile signing of Haaland.

The forward has 86 goals in 89 appearances since joining Borussia Dortmund and is the youngest player (aged 20) to score 20 goals in the Champions League.

Haaland also averages almost one goal a game for his national side but there is one team he has not been able to score against - and that's minnow side Gibraltar.

Dayle Coleing - who was the goalkeeper in net for the March 2021 fixture - revealed the media gave him 'motivation' to produce a Player of the Match performance and keep Haaland off the scoresheet.

"We obviously always go into the game as underdogs and before the game against Norway even started, the media was writing us off saying Haaland would score two hat-tricks with silly betting odds so that kind of gave me (the) motivation to shut everyone up if you like," Coleing exclusively told Planet Sport.
"Once the game started and once the whistle went, I went into this mode where I was determined to not let him score. He did have a few shots on goal, I think it was about four or five. So it wasn't like he had a chance, he did have quite a few chances and they were good chances at that.
"But once I saved the first within the first five minutes, I had the confidence, and it would take him or anyone else quite a lot to score against me. And fortunately, I had a very good game.
"Obviously it helped with my defenders because it was like a constant battle defending and clearing the ball away every so often. So, it was kind of a massive deal for us and a massive deal for me. After the 63rd minute I think it was, he got subbed off without scoring a goal."

"It's funny because at half-time coming out for the second half, Joshua King came up to me. He was on the bench, and he said to me 'do you play for Barcelona or Real Madrid?'. And I started laughing with him because I was having a very good game. And after the game finished everyone came up to me even their players.

"I think Haaland and [Martin] Odegaard had an interview where they said that the keeper must've had the best game of his life. I don't think that was the best game of my life but it's definitely up there. It was just because it was so high profile, it was very well known and seen."

No shirt swap

Coleing - who has won 16 caps for Gibraltar and has also played against the Netherlands - admitted Haaland was the 'biggest player' he had played against in his career.
As expected at the end of a game, players from the opposition tend to shake hands before swapping shirts - and this was no different.

But Haaland was in no mood to swap his shirt, instead scoffing at the request of a Gibraltar player following Norway's 3-0 win.

"After the game I didn't have any intentions to swap shirts with them. I think that's what the unwritten rule is, the striker will swap shirts with a striker and the keeper will swap shirts with the keeper"
"And one of our players went up to him and said if he minded swapping shirt with him as his son is a massive Haaland fan. Haaland must've not been in a good mood, I'm not sure but he wasn't keen on swapping shirts.
"Maybe it was because he didn't score, maybe it was because he didn't have a good game, I don't know. He wasn't keen on swapping shirts so that stayed at that. But no one really wanted his shirt after that so we kept our distance from him.
"In the second match away, no one was asking for his shirt because we kind of felt disrespected to a certain degree. I never asked for a shirt, I never really do unless it's one of my goalkeeping heroes."

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