Manchester City 7-0 Leipzig: With five goals, Erling Haaland has seized the leading role in the return of the round of 16 of the Champions League between Manchester City and RB Leipzig. There was simply no measure for the 22-year-old Norwegian on Tuesday evening at the Etihad Stadium, who equaled a prestigious record.
Unchained Haaland pulverizes Leipzig with five goals
His old coach Marco Rose had laughed on the way to the second game between City and Leipzig at the criticism of Haaland that sounded in England. As a trainer of Red Bull Salzburg and Borussia Dortmund, the German experienced the goal getter up close and feared the danger of his old pupil, who had not scored in five of his eight appearances since the beginning of February. On German soil, Leipzig had managed to keep the striker under control three weeks ago. That didn’t work for a meter in the return.
Haaland opened the score in the 22nd minute, after Leipzig had conceded a penalty kick in a silly way. Rodri had headed the ball into Benjamin Henrichs’ arm from close range. The German defender barely noticed he was making hands, but the refereeing was unrelenting. From the penalty spot, Haaland left former Heracles Almelo goalkeeper Janis Blaswich no chance: 1-0.
Two minutes later, Haaland scored again, who struck from the rebound after a great shot from Kevin De Bruyne against the crossbar. The 2-0 against Leipzig was already his thirtieth goal in the Champions League for Haaland. That while he only experienced his 25th appearance on the highest European stage. By reaching the thirty-goal mark so quickly, he dethroned record holder Ruud van Nistelrooij .
Even before the halftime signal, the protagonist took away the last glimmer of hope at Leipzig for a stunt. In the extra time of the first half, Haaland was quick to pop the ball in from close range at a corner: 3-0.
Second half
Rose then tried to limit the damage, but the visitors did not succeed. Ilkay Gündogan knocked Blaswich early in the second half with a shot into the far corner: 4-0. The midfielder’s goal diverted attention from Haaland’s record hunt for just a moment.
Only two players in the history of the Champions League managed to score five goals in one match. Lionel Messi did that on behalf of Barcelona in March 2012 against Bayer Leverkusen and Luiz Adriano also struck five times in the shirt of Shakhtar Donetsk in October 2014 in a group match against BATE Borisov. The oh-so-eager Haaland matched the two.
After the attacker had made it 5-0 with a bang from close range, he wrote history in the 57th minute with his fifth goal of the evening. At a corner, Haaland was again in the right place for the rebound. With his right, the phenomenon shot the ball past Blaswich without hesitation: 6-0. The celebrated top scorer had to accept shortly afterwards that Pep Guardiola thought it was enough. The City manager decided to spare his star player and took Haaland off in the 63rd minute.
How great the damage would have been for Leipzig if Haaland had played ninety minutes, we will never know. Haaland watched as De Bruyne provided a brilliant final chord. The Belgian determined the final score at 7-0 with a long shot that ended in the right corner.
