Erling Haaland fires message after rare off night in dire Man City defeat against Ruben Amorim's Sporting CP

The English champions are going through a slump and suffered their third consecutive defeat to the Portuguese outfit, despite drawing first blood through Phil Foden. When the world was keenly following Haaland, another Scandinavian sensation, Viktor Gyokeres, stole the spotlight with a sensational hat-trick to fire his side to a thumping 4-1 win.

Haaland could have handed City a lifeline, if he had converted from the spot in the second half, but could only hit the crossbar from 12 yards. To rub salt in the wound, Gyokeres buried two spot-kicks at the other end of the pitch to seal a remarkable victory for the Portuguese side, before Amorim heads to Manchester United.

After spending almost a day reflecting on the defeat, Haaland took to social media and sent out a rallying cry to his teammates.

He wrote: "Only one way to move on from last night - work even harder and come back fighting from this."

After a disappointing continental evening, Haaland will look to make amends against Brighton in the Premier League on Saturday evening prior to the international break.