Erling Haaland scores five times as City beats Leipzig
Manchester City’s Erling Haaland scored five goals in his team’s 7-0 victory against RB Leipzig in the second leg of the round of 16 of the Champions League on Wednesday, sending his side through the quarterfinals with an 8-1 aggregate score and one of the single most dominant performances ever seen on the European knockout stage.
Remarkably, Haaland's first goal did not come until a penalty in the 22nd minute, with four more goals following quickly before he was substituted off in the 63rd minute.
The Norwegian striker found the back of the net again just two minutes later, then marked his hat-trick before the end of the first half, with his third goal in injury time.
City started the second half with a comfortable 3-0 lead and got on the scoresheet again with Ilkay Gundogan’s goal in the 49th minute.
Haaland further extended that lead in the 53rd and 57th minute for a total of five goals.
Leipzig, on the other hand, failed to score and ended the game after conceding a seventh goal to Kevin De Bruyne in the 92nd minute.
City advanced to the quarterfinals for the sixth time in a row with Wedneday’s win. Meanwhile, Haaland became the third player to score five goals in a Champions League game.
The first player to manage it was then Barcelona forward Lionel Messi, when he played against Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the round of 16 in 2012. The other player to do so was then Shakhtar Donetsk player Luiz Adriano, who did it against BATE Borisov in the group stage in 2015.
Haaland has scored 10 goals in six of the Champions League matches so far this season. He is the top scorer in the tournament at the moment.
BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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