In the second leg of the Round of 16 matchup between Manchester City and RB Leipzig, Erling Haaland carved his name into the Champions League Hall of Honours with a historical performance in an emphatic 7-0 victory that sent the English team into the Quarterfinals.
Five for Erling Haaland
After the mediocre performance against RB Leipzig in the first leg, the doubters raise some eyebrows about whether Haaland is that good. And he responded perfectly in the returning fixture.&nbsp;
In the 22nd minute, Ruben Dias headed the ball into the outstretched arm of Benjamin Hendrichs inside the box. And given a chance from the spot, Erling Haaland capitalized into the bottom right corner with a calm finish. And just over a minute later, he found himself in the right area to head the ball in after a beautiful shot from Kevin de Bruyne hit the crossbar. Two goals in two minutes gave City a much easier game. In the first half’s final minutes, the corner from Jack Grealish found Ruben Dias for the header that hit the post. And out of nowhere, Erling Haaland snuck in to finish his hat-trick right before the break.
The second half began with Manchester City dominating the possession game while RB Leipzig was shellshocked. Ilkay Gundogan slid in a magnificent strike from outside the box to make it four. Then it’s the Erling Haaland show again, with a common theme in this match: Haaland was in the right place at the right time to finish after a scramble play following a corner. And minutes later, he completed his otherworldly performance with a tap-in following another scramble inside the box. Five for Haaland and six for Manchester City.
Pep Guardiola saw enough and decided to rest the Norwegian superstar after only an hour of play. In the rest of the game, Kevin de Bruyne completed his own masterclass performance with a curler from outside the box to end the game with an easy “7up”.
Erling Haaland – the Record Breaker
After moving to Manchester City this season, the Norwegian beast broke out of his cocoon and became the superstar everyone wanted. With the assistants of a stacked supporting cast in Kevin de Bruyne, Jack Grealish, and Bernardo Silva, Erling Haaland is on his way to winning the Golden Boot and breaking every record on his path. He is at 28 goals in the Premier League so far, only needing five more to break Mohammed Salah‘s number.
But this is the story of the Champions League. With five goals today, Haaland now tops the race for the Champions League best goalscorer at ten goals. Erling Haaland joins Luiz Adriano and Lionel Messi as the only players to score five goals in the Champions League. And if Pep Guardiola was generous, Haaland could have been the only player to score a “double hat-trick” in the Champions League. Only Messi and Haaland did this feat in a knockout game, with both against German clubs.
Not only joined the elite company, but he also became the youngest and the fastest player to bag 30 goals on European football’s biggest stage.
Manchester City will surely go far with this man leading the attack.
Other Champions League News
A goalless draw saw Inter Milan advance to the Quarterfinals over FC Porto. This is the first time in almost 15 years that both AC Milan and Inter Milan will play in the final 8. Tomorrow the last two teams to insert their names into the Quarterfinals will be unveiled. Will it be Napoli, Frankfurt, Real Madrid, or Liverpool?
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