(Sevilla 0–4 Manchester City) Erling Braut Haaland (22) took just 20 minutes to score in his first Champions League match for Manchester City. It didn’t take long for goal number two to arrive.
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– The Champions League is back and I love it, writes Haaland on Twitter.
Jærbuen has been singled out as the man who can solve Pep Guardiola’s “Champions League problem” at Manchester City. He started that task perfectly in the 4-0 victory over Sevilla.
Haaland was, of course, responsible for two of the goals, while Phil Foden and Ruben Dias were also on the scoresheet.
The 1-0 came early when Haaland broke free at the far post and deflected teammate Kevin De Bruyne’s cross into goal with his left foot.
– The most dangerous combination in European football right now, commented TV 2’s Morten Langli of duo City.
The second of the day in Haaland was a simple return. At 3-0, the Norwegian was substituted in favor of Julian Alvarez.
According to statistics agency Opta, Haaland is the fourth player to score on his Champions League debut for three different clubs. The other three are beloved football names such as Fernando Morientes, Javier Saviola and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Haaland scored a hat-trick on his CL debut with Salzburg against Genk in 2019/2020, scored two against PSG with Dortmund and scored two more on Tuesday night.
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The scoring phenomenon has already risen to twelve goals for City, which on Tuesday began a new attempt to lift the club’s curse in the Champions League.
– Right place, right time, always, writes former England striker Gary Lineker and calls it “madness”.
– His numbers throughout his career are at the same level. He has an incredible flair for goals, describes City manager Pep Guardiola.
Opta’s number one Duncan Alexander points out that Haaland has scored more goals than CL of Leeds and that there are only 31 players who have scored more goals than the Norwegian since the tournament started in 1992.
In the Champions League, the Norwegian has scored 25 goals in 20 games. He has touched – and then surpassed – players such as Paul Scholes, Luis Figo and Gonzalo Higuaín in the number of goals of the CL-players with 124, 103 and 83 games respectively.
Robin van Persie and Hernan Crespo are super forwards who have scored as many CL goals as the Norwegian giant.
Sure, there are a few meters to go before Cristiano Ronaldo’s 140th CL goal is threatened, but Haaland has definitely taken the hunt.
Tuesday’s goal tally was not entirely different from the De Bruyne-Haaland duo represented The 1-1 draw against Aston Villa on Saturday:
Also in his Premier League debut against West Ham, Haaland was served by De Bruyne’s outstanding footwork, then with a stick in the back room.
Against both Newcastle and Crystal Palace, Haaland scored in situations that arose after De Bruyne had sent the ball into the field with a banana screw.
– I try to do my job, make the right moves and create as many opportunities as possible. I know somehow Haaland will be there, explains Kevin De Bruyne to BT Sport.
Haaland continues to attract attention with very few touches per score. In the first half against Sevilla he had only five passes and four completions.
Sevilla started winless in their first four league games in Spain.
PS! Dortmund beat FC Copenhagen 3-0 in the second Group G match.
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