Man City 7-0 RB Leipzig: Erling Haaland’s Hat-trikck sends City into QF of UCL 2022/23

Manchester City is into the quarter finals of UEFA Champions League, thumping RB Leipzig by a huge margin of 7-0, courtesy of Norwegian striking beast Erling Haaland, who hit the back of the net five times last night, in Etihad Stadium, thus stepping foot into the quarters in a classy style, with an aggregate score of 8-1 over two legs.

Courtesy of a sublime performance from Haaland and midfielder Kevin de Bruyne, Guardiola’s side eased past the German side into the last eight of the tournament.

Records tumble as Haaland kept scoring

On a historical night, when Manchester City was scoring for fun, records tumbled as Haaland became the second player to score five times in a single game after Lionel Messi in 2012, who hit five against Bayer Leverkusen.

But that was not the only record which was broken last night, as he became the youngest and fastest player to score more than 30 goals in the elite competition.

He also surpassed Tommy Johnson’s tally of highest goals in a single season(38) in 1928-29 season, currently sitting on 39 goals and well on verge of scoring a half century of goals with more than 20 games left for the season.

Stalwarts in the line-up

Guardiola started the match with all of his team’s stalwarts this season, with de Bruyne, Gundogan, Grealish and Bernardo Silva bossing the attacking midfield, with Haaland the lone striker up front. The defense was flanked by Ruben Dias, Nathan Ake and Akanji, with Ederson guarding the goal.

They got an early opportunity to go ahead in the second minute when a sublime cross from de Bruyne almost helped Gundogan to score only to blast over the net, squandering the chance. But , with Haaland waiting to pounce, City would not mind with these missed chances.

A match dominated by the English side

It was expected that City would be victorious, but it was not sure by what margin they would do it. They had the ball possession by 67 percent, barely allowing Marco Rose’s side to get hold of the ball. The attackers of City had 23 shots on target, utter dominance was quite visible from their virtuoso performance.

Haaland opened the scoring with a penalty on the 22nd minute of the game when a possible handball allowed VAR to recheck the decision. With no mistake, Haaland blasted the back of the net from the spot.

And in quick succession, he scored the second goal with a rebound shot from the net, which doubled the score line. And after that there was no looking back as they just strolled past the German side like a cakewalk, with Leipzig’s players barely visible on the ground.

Apart from Haaland, the other goal scorers for City were de Bruyne, who curled past a shot into the top right corner of the goal where Leipzig goalkeeper Blaswich could barely get his hand on it. Gundogan also got his name on the scoresheet with an assist from Grealish, thus rounding up the score line.

With this victory, Manchester City created the record of being unbeaten at home for 24 matches on the trot, in UEFA Champions League.