Manchester City marched into the Champions League eight with a combined score of 8-1. On Tuesday, Haaland broke UCL history in the number of goals in one playoff match.
Manchester City, which is still in the hunt for the title of the English Premier League, advanced in a knock-out way to the quarter-finals of the Champions League playoffs.
City’s goal threat appeared Erling Haaland, who scored five goals in just over an hour, when RB Leipzig suffered a 0-7 crushing defeat in the second part. Haaland was substituted in the 63rd minute to huge applause. Kevin de Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan were the other City scorers.
– Of course I would have liked to play more in the match, but there are other players in the team, Haaland grinned after his great performance.
The Norwegian sensation completed his first full goal from the penalty kick and scored the rest from his parade position, in front of the goal. Three of Haaland’s goals were scored by the Leipzig goalkeeper by Janis Blaswich from the blocked return ball.
Haaland is the third player to score five goals in one Champions League campaign. They have reached the same thing before Luiz Adriano (for Shakhtar Donetsk in 2014 in a match against BATE Borisov) and Lionel Messi (for Barcelona in 2012 in the Leverkusen match). Messi also reached five hits in the UCL playoffs.
– A fantastic match, there’s really no other way to describe it. At this level, this was my best match, although I have once scored nine goals in one match, Haaland told news agency AFP
In the all-time goal statistics of the Champions League, the 22-year-old Haaland rose to share the 25th place with his 33 goals.
Defender of RB Leipzig Benjamin Henrichs updated that he had never lost a football match 0-7 before.
– Haaland “popped” us in his mouth today. Haaland is difficult to defend and he brings so many dimensions to the field as a brutal physical player, Henrichs was spinning his head.
In a night of records, Haaland also became Manchester City’s all-time leading scorer in a single season as he took his tally to 39 goals, passing by Tommy Johnson the former record from the season 1928–29.
In the second match of the evening, FC Porto from Portugal was tied 0-0 at home, despite hitting both the post and the crossbar in extra time. The Italian Inter scored once at San Siro and advanced to the quarterfinals with a 1–0 aggregate goal.
In addition to City and Inter, Bayern Munich, Benfica, Chelsea and Milan have cleared their way to the semifinals.
On Wednesday, the last two places in the top eight will be decided, when Real Madrid will face Liverpool and Napoli will face Eintracht Frankfurt. Real leads after the opening half 5–2 and Napoli 2–0.