Erling Haaland Scores Five as Manchester City Advances to Champions League Quarter-Finals
Haaland is the youngest and quickest player to score 30 goals in Europe’s premier club competition.
He is also the youngest player to score five goals in a single Champions League match, joining Lionel Messi and Luiz Adriano as the only players to accomplish this feat.
The 22-year-old has now scored 39 goals in all competitions this season, becoming the first City player to reach that mark in a single campaign. His five hat tricks are more than any other player in the five major leagues by three.
On any normal day, Ilkay Gundogan’s precise low shot into the bottom corner would have merited praise. On this historic evening, which matched City’s 2019 7-0 victory over Schalke, it was a mere footnote.
Erling Haaland Scores Five as Manchester City Advances to Champions League Quarter-Finals. By this evidence, no one, not even Real Madrid, will want to be paired with Pep Guardiola’s side in Friday’s last-eight draw.
Legendary former club captain Vincent Kompany can only hope his old club has got this caliber of performance out of their system when he brings his Burnley side to Etihad Stadium in the FA Cup on Saturday.
Boss Rose is haunted by former player Haaland
Last season, Marco Rose was Haaland’s supervisor at Dortmund. On the eve of the game, when he was informed that some consider City to be a weaker team with the Norwegian on the roster, it is understandable why he reacted incredulously.
Rose responded, “It could get extremely, extremely, extremely good for him with Pep and Man City.”
He would have preferred his words not to be proved quite so perceptive, quite so soon.
Nathan Ake lobbed a long pass over Leipzig’s defense, and in less than a half-dozen strides, Haaland had sprinted clear of Leipzig’s defense and was bearing down on goal, signaling the impending difficulties for Leipzig.
Janis Blaswich was able to deny Haaland the opening goal, but that was to be his only victory of the evening in this personal battle.
Rose could argue that City should not have been awarded the penalty that allowed Haaland to score the game’s first goal.
True, Benjamin Henrichs was very close to Rodri, but VAR revealed that the defender had his arms extended when Rodri headed the ball against his hand.
Five-star Haaland offers a masterclass in finishing
Haaland kept his cool, converted the penalty, and, while the visiting bench was still muttering about the injustice of it all, made it 2-0 when he reacted quickest to De Bruyne’s thunderous shot rebounding off the crossbar and heading into an empty net.
And when Amadou Haidara’s clearance off the line, following Blaswich’s save on Ruben Dias’ header, bounced directly into Haaland’s path to give him his hat trick in first-half stoppage time, Leipzig may have been tempted to concede.
However, there was more punishment in store for the unfortunate visitors.
The well-executed goal by Gundogan was followed by Haaland’s fourth, which occurred after Blaswich saved a Manuel Akanji shot and the rebound fell perfectly for the Norwegian.
When Haaland scored his fifth goal for the first time in his career, he had scored five times in 35 minutes.
His father Alfie, who was observing the game from a box high in the stadium, was on his feet and leading the applause.
Guardiola concluded, likely prudently, that Haaland’s continued presence on the field would not serve many purposes. The appreciative and astonished crowd gave him a standing ovation as he left in response to what they had just witnessed.
De Bruyne scored with virtually the last kick of the game, condemning Leipzig to their heaviest European defeat. The city had slowed down with the job firmly in hand before De Bruyne scored.
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