Erling Haaland on Tuesday equaled a UEFA Champions League record with a five-goal haul to ease Manchester City into the quarter-finals at RB Leipzig’s expense with a 7-0 win.
In the process, Haaland also set a new club record for goals in a season of 39 as manager Pep Guardiola’s men reached the last eight for the sixth consecutive season with an 8-1 aggregate victory.
“My super strength is scoring goals,” Haaland said. “A lot of it is being quick in the mind and trying to put it where the goalkeeper is not.”
Photo: AP
City have yet to go all the way in the Champions League, but they have never had a striker of Haaland’s quality to make the difference in the latter stages before.
At just 22 he now has 33 goals in 25 appearances in Europe’s premier club competition.
“Firstly, I’m proud to play in this competition, I love it,” Haaland said. “Five goals. To win 7-0 is amazing.”
Photo: AFP
The snowy weather was more akin to Haaland’s homeland, but City did not freeze under the pressure and kept their Champions League dreams alive.
The tie was delicately balanced after a 1-1 draw in eastern Germany three weeks ago, but a Leipzig side depleted by injury never looked like a match for their star-studded opponents.
“That was an incredible performance,” Leipzig coach Marco Rose said. “They didn’t allow us to control the game at all, at no stage of the game. The bottom line is disappointing for us, but they really deserved it.”
Guardiola had kept Kevin de Bruyne in reserve for City’s 1-0 win at Crystal Palace in the English Premier League at the weekend and on his return to the starting lineup, the Belgian was back to his best.
Ilkay Gundogan should have opened the scoring after just 3 minutes from De Bruyne’s inviting cross.
There was some fortune surrounding City’s opener as the video assistant referee spotted a handball against Benjamin Henrichs that led to a penalty that neither the City players nor the crowd even noticed.
Haaland fired low to Janis Blaswich’s left to maintain his perfect record from the spot for City with his sixth penalty of the season.
Two minutes later it was 2-0 as Haaland teed up De Bruyne, who smashed a shot against the bar, and then showed his speed and strength to power home a header from the rebound.
Haaland had three before halftime as Ruben Dias rose highest to head Jack Grealish’s corner onto the post and Amadou Haidara’s attempted clearance ricocheted off City’s No. 9 into the net.
Gundogan’s classy finish into the far corner 4 minutes into the second half rubbed more salt into Leipzig’s wounds before Haaland started rewriting the record books.
First, he hammered home at the second attempt after Blaswich parried his initial header to match Tommy Johnson’s record of 38 goals for City in the 1928-1929 season.
Haaland set a new mark with still three months of the campaign to go when he snaffled up another rebound after Blaswich saved from Manuel Akanji.
In the process, he moved level with Lionel Messi and Luiz Adriano’s record of scoring five goals in a Champions League game, but Guardiola denied his star striker the chance of another record as he replaced him with Julian Alvarez with 25 minutes remaining.
“If he achieves all these milestones at 22 his life would be boring,” Guardiola said jokingly.
Instead, it was left to De Bruyne to have the final say as he curled a superb strike into the top corner in stoppage-time.
In Tuesday’s other Champions League game, Inter held off Porto in a gritty 0-0 draw to reach the quarter-finals, with a 1-0 aggregate triumph.
The Italian side, three-time winners of this competition, progressed to the last eight for the first time since 2011.
Clutching a one-goal advantage from Romelu Lukaku’s last-16 first-leg late winner, Inter set up to frustrate at the Estadio do Dragao.
Porto had the better of the game, but only managed to test Inter goalkeeper Andre Onana on a few occasions. Their finest chances came in stoppage-time at the end, when Mehdi Taremi and Marko Grujic both hit the woodwork and Marcano had an effort cleared off the line.
“There are so many emotions right now, after so many years we are proud of this achievement,” Inter midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu said. “We made some mistakes, but we did a great job, it was very difficult, but I congratulate the team for the great job.”
Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien and Jiang Xinyu of China yesterday won the women’s doubles title at the ASB Classic in Auckland, while Naomi Osaka retired from the women’s singles final with an abdominal injury. Second seeds Wu and Jiang defeated Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic and Sabrina Santamaria of the US 6-3, 6-4 on ASB Tennis Centre’s Stadium Court in 1 hour, 5 minutes. The WTA 250 victory was 25-year-old Wu’s second WTA Tour title, after winning the 2023 Hua Hin Championships in Thailand with Taiwanese partner Chan Hao-ching. Later that year, Wu and Taiwan’s Hsu Yu-hsiou won the mixed doubles gold at the World
The NHL postponed the Los Angeles Kings’ home game against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday with several massive wildfires burning across the greater Los Angeles area. The Kings and Flames were scheduled to play on Wednesday night at the Kings’ downtown arena. The NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers were scheduled to host the Charlotte Hornets in the same arena last night. “Our hearts are with our entire Los Angeles community,” the Kings said in a statement. “We appreciate the hard working first responders who are diligently working to contain the fire and protect our community. We appreciate the league’s support in keeping our
EL CLASSICO: La Liga champions Real Madrid would face Barcelona in the Super Cup final tomorrow. Barca secured their final spot after a 2-0 win over Bilbao on Wednesday Real Madrid would chase a record-equaling 14th Spanish Super Cup title in the final against Barcelona after second-half goals by Jude Bellingham and Rodrygo helped them to a 3-0 win over Mallorca in the semi-finals on Thursday. England midfielder Bellingham broke the deadlock after the hour mark with a low shot into the middle of the goal before Mallorca defender Martin Valjent’s own goal doubled the lead in stoppage time followed by a Rodrygo strike from close range. Spanish champions Real are to play Barcelona for the trophy tomorrow after goals by Gavi and Lamine Yamal earned Barca a 2-0 win over
Peterborough manager Darren Ferguson said an unnamed Everton player “had a pop” at him after he denied Tyler Young the opportunity to come on as a substitute against his father Ashley in Thursday’s English FA Cup third round match. While former England international Ashley came off the bench in the second half for Everton, Tyler was an unused sub in the game at Goodison Park. Everton won 2-0 against the third-division team. “I’ve got to do what’s best for my team and we’re not a charity case,” Ferguson said. “As much as I wanted Tyler to go on with his dad, one
RSS