(Manchester City-RB Leipzig 7-0, aggregate 8-1) Erling Braut Haaland (22) is used to producing adventurous performances in the Champions League. Against Leipzig, he reached the level of Lionel Messi.
The Norwegian imitated the Argentine’s five goals for Barcelona against Bayer Leverkusen from 2012 – also in the Champions League round of 16. Luiz Adriano is the third player to score five in the same game, but that was in Shakhtar Donetsk’s group stage against Belarusian side BATE in fall 2014.
– It’s an amazing feeling, I can’t describe the feeling. I’m happy, that’s who I am,” Haaland told TV2 after the achievement in Manchester.
After scoring five goals, Pep Guardiola opted to replace his super striker in the 62nd minute.
On the way out, the camera caught Haaland saying a few well-chosen words to his manager:
– I told him when I was traded that I would have loved to score a double hat-trick, Haaland told BT Sports with a smile on his face.
The city manager soon ran out of superlatives when asked about the jewel:
– this is unbelievable. Five goals in sixty minutes. Think how many goals he can score in 90 minutes. He is an amazing talent, endowed with superhuman strength and a strong mentality. The skull of a real winner, it’s simply too good, said Guardiola in an interview shown on TV2.
The 20 minutes that passed before the match between Manchester City and RB Leipzig were completely on fire.
After a chaotic pinball inside the Leipzig box, referee Slavko Vincic was called to the VAR screen.
The result was that the ball was in the hands of Benjamin Henriques, and the Slovenian referee forcefully pointed to the penalty mark. This decision is considered by many in European football to be controversial.
From 11 metres, Erling Braut Haaland was as confident as ever, and beat City 1-0.
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But Manchester City, and especially Brian’s goal machine, were far from finished:
The Leipzig players only had time to realize they were behind before Kevin De Bruyne hit a long-range shot against the crossbar.
On the return, Haaland went out first, and with force, the 22-year-old scored his second goal of the evening, and his 30th Champions League goal.
There are many legends like Ryan Giggs, Patrick Kluivert, Kaka and Steven Gerrard.
No one was younger when he reached 30 goals, and no one did it faster than Haaland. After the match, the super striker was asked how he copes with pressure and expectations:
I understood early on that there was nothing I could do about people’s opinions. People must have opinions to be relevant. The only thing I can do is go out on the field and do what I’m good at, and I managed to do that today,” Haaland sums up TV 2.
For a long time it looked like Leipzig would only go into the break with a two-minute lead, but two minutes into extra time the home side’s fans had more encouragement:
A corner kick from Jack Grealish was kicked towards the goal by Ruben Dias, bouncing off the post and bouncing attractively along the goal line.
In the end, Haaland was ready again – he scored his fifth hat-trick of the season, and the number 8 result in the Champions League this season.
Immediately after the break, Ilkay Gündogan made it 4-0 to City – after which it was Haaland who again took the leading role.
In the space of four minutes, Jærbuen scored both 5-0 and 6-0 at Etihad. The previous player to score five goals in a Champions League match was Luis Adriano in 2014. Only Adriano and Lionel Messi scored five goals in a single match before.
Thus, Haaland reaches 39 goals in the City kit in all competitions and is the person who has scored the most goals in one season for City – after the 38 goals scored by Tommy Johnson in the 1928/29 season.
After sitting on the bench after just over an hour of action, Jærbow could finally see Kevin De Bruyne with a little piece of football magic. The Belgian came in from outside 16m and went 7-0, 8-1 on aggregate and comfortably advanced to the quarter-finals.
After the end of the match, there was no doubt who the grand champion was in Al-Ittihad:
Haaland went straight to the referee, picked up the ball and took the honorable run around the pitch while the home fans gave a standing ovation.
– It is a “message” to the rest of the teams in the tournament. We can score 7 goals in the match. It felt great, Haaland told CBS after the game.
Haaland now stands with 10 goals in the Champions League this season and leads the scorers list. Mohamed Salah (8) and Kylian Mbappe (7) occupy the second and third places.
In all, he now has 33 goals and is 25th together, with Samuel Eto’o, among the all-time top scorers in Europe’s most prestigious club league.
Gerd Müller (34), Wayne Rooney (34), Edinson Cavani (35) and Frenk Puskas (35) are next in the list of big names Haaland can pass. Kylian Mbappe has 40 goals.
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