RB Leipzig, the third best team in Germany, arrived here with confidence and enthusiasm. They left having been torn apart and humiliated by arguably the best football team in Europe and almost certainly its most destructive center forward.
Manchester City are a resourceful team with a cannonball playing up front. And when Erling Haaland shoots, few are left standing. Here the young Norwegian did it five times for the first time in his career. He now he has five City hat-tricks and 39 (yes, thirty-nine) goals and it’s only mid-March of his first season in England.
In fact, Pep Guardiola took him out here with about half an hour to play. He had just scored twice in the space of three minutes having done exactly the same thing in the first half. Had he stayed on the field, it seems almost inevitable that he would have scored more. As he walked away, Leipzig’s humiliated and broken players must have felt like joining in the applause, theirs motivated only by relief.
Haaland didn’t even score the best two goals of the night. The best goal of the team was finished off by Ilkay Gundogan just after the break. The best individual shot was Kevin de Bruyne’s superb 20-yard curler in the 92nd minute. Having been advised by his coach before the match to keep things simple, this was an emphatic and interesting response from the Belgian.
But none of that is the point. Haaland didn’t score the best or most memorable goals of the night, but he did score five times. Five. In an hour. The 22-year-old has a hunger for goal only matched by the quality of his delivery.
Erling Haaland stunned Red Bull Leipzig with five goals to lift Manchester City to the Champions League quarter-finals
The Norwegian hitman scored twice in 76 seconds for the hosts as Pep Guardiola’s side dominated the first half against Leipzig.
It was a disappointing night for Marco Rose’s side, who were wrecked by the Premier League champions in a 7-0 thrashing.
At the end here, he wandered the pitch in a coat to keep him warm and with the match ball tucked under his arm. Giving a single thumbs up to the crowd, he had the countenance of a middleweight boxer walking out of the ring after a particularly satisfying sparring session. However, Haaland is a football heavyweight, and if his presence in this team does not make them European champions this time around, then once again something has gone very wrong.
City, of course, is the team that invents new ways of not winning the Champions League and that weighs heavily. From his players and especially from his coach. However, Guardiola must know that his team is magnificently well placed once again. There are those who say that Haaland does not fit naturally into the way City play and, strangely enough, there is probably something to that. But he’s just so good at what he does that it doesn’t really matter since City tend to enjoy so much possession and territory.
Here they were helped by referee Slavko Vincic from the start and briefly the first goal, a penalty, looked like it could become the controversial story of the night. How things can change during the course of a game.
Indeed, the decision was desperately soft. A high and deep corner from De Bruyne from the left was headed in by Rodri. At first, the fact that Manuel Akanji and then Haaland had failed to convert the ball drew attention. But the referee’s whistle signaled a VAR intervention and when asked to consult the pitchside monitor, the Slovenian referee decided that the ball had come off Rodri’s head and brushed against Benjamin Henrichs’ arm on his way. way back through the goal.
Haaland struck Ruben Dias’s header off the post shortly before half-time to put City 3-0 up at the Etihad at half-time.
Captain Ilkay Gundogan scored Manchester City’s fourth goal with his weaker left foot shortly after half time, putting the hosts 4-0 ahead.
Haaland scored twice more on 53rd and 57th minutes before leaving after the hour mark, having scored his 39th of the season.
The fact that the Leipzig player had his back to the ball and his arm slightly extended to assist his jump didn’t seem to matter. A very peculiar penalty was called, Henrichs was reprimanded and Haaland scored with a low shot taken with his left foot.
Leipzig were unimpressed and in a minute or so they were down two. Haaland did exceptionally well, holding off a deep clearance and then following up a shot from De Bruyne that hit the crossbar to head in on the rebound. It was an excellent game from the center forward and now City were on their way.
Referee Vincic continued to be influential and that’s never a good sign. Just after half an hour, the City goalkeeper Ederson advanced from his area and took out a Leipzig player. The Brazilian did not receive the ball and had to be sanctioned. Instead, the referee gave nothing and booked former Chelsea player Timo Werner for complaining.
Kevin De Bruyne was on a mission at the Etihad on Tuesday and capped off his excellent display with a long-range goal late on.
Haaland has now bagged his fifth hat-trick of the season since arriving for £51m from Borussia Dortmund last summer.
Pep Guardiola’s side join Chelsea, Inter, AC Milan, Bayern Munich and Benfica in the Champions League quarter-finals so far.
It was clearly not going to be Leipzig night and that quickly fell short. Four City goals were to come from corners and it was no coincidence. Leipzig simply couldn’t defend them and that’s how Haaland scored from three, on 45, 54 and 57 minutes. They were all poacher goals, but none the less impressive for it. Last season, City did not have a suitable center forward. Now they have one that has scored almost 40 goals.
Gundogan’s goal, City’s fourth on 49 minutes, came low from the left after some fine play down the right. Meanwhile, De Bruyne’s was a work of art.
The Bundesliga team was just running to stand still by then. They had been dismantled. Struck. Hope had long since given way to a desperate fight for pride and dignity.
City can do this to teams and when they do, Haaland is usually the leader of the pack. Will the best team in Europe get the trophy this time? They really should.