It was a night of records for Erling Haaland as Manchester City claimed a thumping 7-0 win over RB Leipzig in the Champions League. Having played out to a 1-1 draw in the first leg back in Germany, many expected a tricky affair at the Etihad stadium, though with the English giants as the favourites.
The script did play out as most would wave expected – a City win – but the manner in which it happened more or less left fans and neutrals alike stunned.
It took 22 minutes for Haaland to open the scoring from the spot and it was a free-flowing affair from there henceforth.
Haaland bagged a brace 78 seconds after before completing his hat-trick just on the stroke of half-time. There was more to come in the second half as Ilkay Gundogan made it 4-0 just after the break.
Still hungry for more goals, Haaland scored two in the space of five minutes to make it a memorable five goals and six for City before Kevin de Bruyne put the icing on the cake with a thumping strike in added time to make it an emphatic 7-0 win for City.
With five goals against Leipzig, Haaland has now become the youngest player to score 30 Champions League goals – only after 25 games as well as the third player in the competition’s history after Lionel Messi and Luiz Adriano to score five goals in a single game.
Haaland has now scored 10 goals in the UEFA Champions League this season, the most by a City player in a single season in the competition. To cap it all off, he has now bagged 39 goals in all competitions this season for City – breaking Tommy Johnson’s club record of 38 in a single campaign set in 1928/29.
Guardiola praises ‘gift’ Haaland
“Five goals, what can I say?” Guardiola said. “I said many times, he’s a joyful guy. His mood in the locker room is always happiness.
“He is a gift to all of us. He is a huge competitor, his mentality is there. He scored five goals which is not easy.”
Haaland has five hat-tricks already this season and his 39 goals have come from just 36 matches.
But as well as his goals, Guardiola praised the striker for his all-round performance and says he was more involved than in recent games.
“Today he scored five goals and I think he made 30-35 ball contacts and this is what we are looking for,” the boss added.
“I had the feeling when you are involved in the game offensively, defensively, when the ball comes to score a goal, you are more clever, more precise, you are in the game.
“It’s difficult to score – he can do it though – when you don’t touch the ball for 40 or 50 minutes.
