The Norwegian forward scored five goals with the Manchester City shirt, eleven years after the man from Rosario did it with Barcelona. Guardiola, the common denominator of him.
Erling Haaland he managed to score five goals in a knockout match in the Champions League, something he had already achieved Lionel Andres Messi, with the common denominator of Pep Guardiola as coach. The repóker obtained in Manchester City against Leipzig, for the rematch of the round of 16, was among the most outstanding individual performances in history.
La Pulga did it on March 7, 2012, in a 7-1 draw against Bayer Leverkusen, for the second leg of the round of 16. The difference is that the 22-year-old Norwegian did them in 35 minutes, while the man from Rosario reached them in 59, at the age of 24.
“I can always say that I directed Messi. Pelé, Maradona, Di Stéfano and Cruyff had the throne; now it’s his”Pep said at that time as manager of Barcelona. What did you say about Haaland on Tuesday? “Erling has an incredible talent. If he had played 90 minutes, who knows how far he would have gone?”held.
criticism and vision
Shortly after the 7-0 (8-1 overall) that deposited the Citizens in the quarterfinals, Haaland assured: “It’s a great night. I am very proud to score 5 goals and to play in the Champions League. I love this competition, as everyone knows.” And he added smiling: “My head is a bit cloudy, so I don’t remember the goals.”
Before the eyes of the former River Plate coach, Marcelo Gallardo, invited by his colleague Guardiola, Haaland revealed the talk he had with the Catalan coach once replaced by the also former “millionaire” Julián Álvarez. “I would have wanted to keep playing to score a double hattrick”held.
“My superpower is scoring goals and that’s why I would have loved to score a double hat-trick after scoring five for Leipzig,” Halland told BT Sport after the match.
If he had achieved those six goals that Guardiola “prevented” from scoring, then Haaland, just 22 years old, would have surpassed Messi and the Brazilian Luiz Adriano in a Shaktar Donesk 7-BATE Borisov 0, in this case for the group stage.
“The truth is that I love the European Champions League and that is why scoring five goals to win 7-0 seems incredible to me, although my interest does not go through being on the front page of the newspapers but because the team wins, because the truth is that I don’t even remember as were those many, because in reality converting them is my superpower, because in reality I don’t think about them, but I simply do them”, he confessed.
“But it is also true that everything is easier for me because we work a lot and well on high pressure, especially at home, when we have to push our rivals, and we are very good at recovering the ball up top,” closed the player who scored five goals in barely 35 minutes and was quickly replaced at 17 minutes by Álvarez, who this Wednesday will renew his contract with Manchester City until 2028.
