Haaland returns to Dortmund from the other side
There’s nothing but “positive and good emotions” about Erling Haaland from the Borussia Dortmund side, but they’ll still have to stop him tonight.
Erling Haaland and his new team Manchester City will travel to Dortmund tonight to face his old team in the Champions League with the chance to clinch the top spot in Group G.
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Haaland was a force to be reckoned with for Dortmund, scoring 86 goals in 89 games in all competitions and he hasn’t slowed down since joining Manchester City on a $63 million trade this summer. Just in the Premier League, Haaland has scored 17 goals in just 11 games with City.
Dortmund without Haaland, however, have scored a total of 18 goals in the Bundesliga on the whole season.
“There are only positive and good emotions when we think about Erling,” said Dortmund head coach Edin Terzic. “He was not only a brilliant player, he was also a really fantastic person inside the dressing room and at the training ground.”
This seems to be a sentiment shared with all who worked and played with Haaland. Though Terzic is sure that Haaland enjoyed his time at Dortmund, it’s now come to an end.
“Now he’s a player for Manchester City, he’s scoring goals in a different shirt, and we have to stop him from scoring goals,” said Terzic.
That’s no small task. In their first meeting of the season, it was Haaland who escaped with the winning goal at the Ethiad. Dortmund will likely rely on its trio of young teenage players - Jude Bellingham, Youssoufa Moukoko, and Gio Reyna. In Dortmund’s recent 5-0 win over Stuttgart, it was those three who scored four of their five goals.
In the Champions League, no player has been involved in more goals than City’s Erling Haaland with five goals, or Borussia Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham, with four goals and one assist. Bellingham has scored five goals in Dortmund’s last six games, including at least one in every Champions League game this season.
With just one game remaining and 10 points in four games, Manchester City would seal the top spot in Group G if they tie or win against Dortmund. Dortmund is currently in second place in Group G with seven points in four games. They would qualify for the knockout stage if Sevilla and Copenhagen tie or if they manage a win against City and Copenhagen lose. To win, they know they have to keep Haaland from getting to the net.
“It was a really emotional goodbye with him,” said Dortmund player Gregor Kobel. “But now it’s a different time and we need to stop him.”