Erling Haaland’s five-goal masterclass fired Manchester City into the Champions League quarter-finals as they dismantled RB Leipzig in a 7-0 rout on Tuesday.
The striker nabbed a first-half hat-trick, including two goals in two minutes, before adding another two after the restart in a tour-de-force performance at the Etihad Stadium for a 8-1 aggregate victory.
Now with 39 goals for the season, Haaland’s haul saw him take Tommy Johnson’s single-season City record set in 1928-29 among a series of new high marks as Pep Guardiola’s hosts tied their record margin of victory in European competition.
Also the youngest and fastest player to pass 30 Champions League goals, Haaland’s historic numbers befitted a majestic display up front, with his latest turn destined to go down in European folklore no matter what happens next.
Haaland was handed a stroke of luck for his first, with City awarded a dubious penalty by referee Slavko Vincic for a handball strongly protested by Benjamin Henrichs.
He ruthlessly converted from the spot, however, and then doubled his tally just moments later when he nodded home a rebound after Kevin De Bruyne hit the crossbar.
A first-half hat-trick followed with an air of inevitability when Haaland pounced on a parried Ruben Dias header before the break to bundle in the third from close range.
Ilkay Gundogan ensured another name at least got on the scoresheet when he added City’s fourth with a sweeping low finish four minutes after the restart.
Yet the game belonged to Haaland, who added another two with close-range strikes before the hour, both times pouncing after Manuel Akanji was denied.
Haaland’s exit in the 63rd minute was greeted with a standing ovation, denying him an unprecedented double hat-trick but saving the City striker ahead of a quarter-final in which further records could fall.
The scoring was not quite over, though, as De Bruyne would not be denied and added a sublime seventh in stoppage time for a final touch of gloss.
Only two other players had ever scored five goals in a Champions League match, in Lionel Messi and Luiz Adriano, before the Norway man stepped out this week. They have a third man in their exclusive club now.
There are another four games before a potential final, but nobody will fancy playing City while Haaland is in this sort of form.
