Erling Haaland hugged Pep Guardiola and let the audience celebrate enthusiastically. The Norwegian striker shattered Leipzig’s dreams of reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League with a breathtaking gala and catapulted himself to the same level as Lionel Messi with his goal record. Haaland advanced to the acclaimed match winner in the 7-0 (3-0) win of English champions Manchester City in the round of 16 second leg against the Bundesliga soccer team on Tuesday with a five-pack. Only Lionel Messi, once in the 7-1 win against Bayer Leverkusen, and Luiz Adriano in the shirt of Shakhtar Donetsk had scored five goals before him in a premier class game.
After the courageous performance in the 1-1 win in the first leg, RB was still hoping for the big coup, but the DFB Cup winner had no chance against the force of Torgarant Haaland. This threatens the Bundesliga to only be represented by FC Bayern in the quarter-finals, especially since Eintracht Frankfurt only has outsider chances in Naples on Wednesday.
Haaland, of all people, made the difference in wet and cold weather, who had once matured into a world-class striker under Leipzig coach Marco Rose in Salzburg and Dortmund. “You’ll never be able to turn him off completely,” Rose had predicted, and painfully proved right. The striker, who had not signed up in the first leg, first gave the Cityzens the lead with a massive hand penalty (22′). Just 77 seconds later, the Norwegian headed in. And just before half-time, Haaland made his hat-trick perfect (45.2). After Ilkay Gündogan scored the fourth goal after the break (49th), Haaland continued his goal show with two more goals (54th and 57th) and caused Leipzig’s highest defeat in Champions League history. Haaland has already scored ten goals in the current season in the premier class, and he has scored 28 times in the Premier League. Kevin De Bruyne provided the final point (90.2).
The Leipzig team wanted to play boldly and hurt Guardiola’s team with aggressive pressing. But in front of around 53,000 spectators, including 3,000 people from Leipzig, things turned out very differently. Man City put a lot of pressure on with a high percentage of possession from the start. The Leipzigers hardly came out of their own half and were played downright dizzy. Germany international Gündogan had the chance to take the lead after just three minutes when he put the ball over the goal after a cross from Kevin De Bruyne. The Belgian, who was injured in the first leg, restored structure to England’s game.
RB were lucky to have survived the early stages without conceding a goal. Because Haaland (11th) with a huge chance and Jack Grealish with a shot that was just deflected (16th) had other top-class players. The Saxons fell behind all the more bitterly. After a Rodrigo header, the ball touched Benjamin Henrichs’ outstretched arm, after video evidence the Slovenian referee Slavko Vincic pointed to the spot. “It is inexplicable that such catastrophic decisions are made at such a level,” scolded Matthias Sammer as an expert at the Internet broadcaster Amazon Prime Video.
Haaland gratefully accepted the gift and gave Janis Blaswich, who had saved a penalty from Gladbach’s Alassane Plea at the weekend, no chance. And shortly afterwards it was Haaland again, who reacted the quickest after a powerful crossbar shot by De Bruyne and marked the fastest brace in the Champions League with his head. But that’s not all: Shortly before the break, Ruben Dias headed the ball against the post after a corner before Haaland put the ball over the line.
And Leipzig? The guests didn’t have a real chance to score in the first 45 minutes. Timo Werner – after all, the only player on the pitch who has ever won the cup – remained pale. Things didn’t get any better after the restart. Gündogan destroyed the last glimmer of hope with a well-placed shot from 14 meters. After that, Haaland was there twice from a short distance before he was substituted after a good hour with huge cheers. Haaland might have finally erased the Messi record with more goals.
Squad RB Leipzig Squad Manchester City Match details from UEFA
