“Lesson number one: never share statistics while Erling Haaland is playing football.” That’s what transfer market expert Fabrizio Romano jokingly wrote on Tuesday evening, as the Manchester City striker shot several records from the books. the Citizens single-handedly to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Haaland, who made his fifth hat-trick in the shirt of City, became the youngest player ever (22 years and 236 days) to score 30 goals in the Champions League with his five-hit against Leipzig. Kylian Mbappé previously held that record. The Norwegian was 116 days younger. No one reached the number of thirty hits faster in the ball of billions. Haaland needed 25 games for this, nine less than Ruud van Nistelrooij.
30 – Erling Haaland has scored 30 goals in 25 games in the UEFA Champions League, reaching this milestone in fewer matches than any other player, while he is also the youngest player to reach 30 goals in the competition’s history (22y 236d). powerhouse. pic.twitter.com/13vKCvQdvY
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 14, 2023
Haaland also made history for Manchester City. He smashed a club record set by Tommy Johnson in 1929 by scoring his 39th goal of the season – the most ever by a City player in a single season. He was also the first player of the Citizens with a hat-trick in the first half and the first City player with a hat-trick in a European knockout match.
5 – Erling Haaland has scored five hat-tricks for Man City in all competitions this season, three more than any other player in Europe’s big five leagues. He’s the first Premier League player to score five hat-tricks in a season since Harry Kane in 2016-17. Unrelenting. pic.twitter.com/np4UTZEJIX
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 14, 2023
Haaland now has 33 goals in the Champions League due to his five goals against Leipzig. With that, he already leaves big names such as Arjen Robben (31), Wayne Rooney (30) and Samuel Eto’o (30) behind in the billion dollar ball. Finally, the Norwegian matched Lionel Messi and Luiz Adriano on Tuesday evening, both of whom had already scored five times in one Champions League match. Messi was that in 2012 during Barcelona – Bayer Leverkusen (7-1), Adriano in 2014 with a big win by Shakhtar Donetsk over BATE Borisov (0-7).
Erling Haaland now has 39 goals for the season, beating the all-time #mcfc record for goals in a season from Tommy Johnson that has stood since 1929
— Simon Bajkowski (@spbajko) March 14, 2023
Lesson number one: never report stats while Erling Haaland is playing football.
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) March 14, 2023