MANCHESTER, England Jan 7 (Reuters) - Manchester City were held to a disappointing 1-1 draw at home to Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League on Wednesday, as Erling Haaland's penalty was cancelled out by a second-half strike from the visitors' Kaoru Mitoma.
City, who have now drawn their last three league games, are second in the table with 43 points, five behind leaders Arsenal who play Liverpool at home on Thursday.
Haaland struck his 150th goal for City from the penalty spot four minutes before the break, after Jeremy Doku was fouled by Diego Gomez and a VAR review confirmed the decision.
The Norwegian looked relieved to end a three-match goal drought and take his tally to 20 Premier League goals for the season.
City went close to doubling the lead just after the break when Bernardo Silva pounced on a Brighton error, but his effort struck the post.
City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and Brighton’s Maxim De Cuyper became involved in a heated confrontation, which ended with yellow cards for both players.
Brighton struck back on the hour mark, asMitomamet a pass from the flank and positioned himself at the edge of the box before guiding a low shot into the far corner.
The visitors took control after the equaliser, slowing the tempo as they built their attacks, and came agonisingly close to going ahead.
Mitoma found Gomez inside the box, but Gomez could not get his finish right and struck the goalkeeper. The rebound fell to Mitoma, whose angled shot from near the byline rattled the post.
In the dying minutes, Haaland found himself alone in the box with only the goalkeeper to beat, but Bart Verbruggen produced a fine save to deny him.
(Tommy Lund in Gdansk, editing by Ed Osmond)
