CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
How many goals has Erling Haaland scored in the Champions League?
The Norwegian scored a hat-trick on his Champions League debut and the goals haven’t stopped flowing since for the Manchester City striker.
Manchester City take on Real Madrid in a mouth-watering Champions League semi-final second leg on Wednesday and, as has been the case all season, will be pinning many of their hopes on the incredible goalscoring talents of Erling Haaland.
Amongst the Norwegian’s exploits in the competition so far this season have been scoring five times in a hour in the round of 16 second leg against RB Leipzig, as well as becoming both the fastest and youngest player to reach 25, 30 and then 35 UCL goals.
A goal in each leg of the quarter-final tie against Bayern Munich saw City safely through to the last four, where he unbelievably failed to find the net in last week’s 1-1 draw against Madrid at Estadio Santiago Bernabéu.
How many goals has Haaland scored for Manchester City this season?
Between the start of August and the end of October, the striker’s goalscoring was frankly ridiculous. Haaland netted 22 times in his first three months at the club, a total that most attackers would be proud to reach over the course of an entire season.
The ex-Borussia Dortmund man seems to find new records to break every single week and, having now scored 52 times in 48 games in all competitions, may have set his sights on Dixie Dean’s all-time English record of 63 goals in one season, as well as Cristiano Ronaldo’s single-season Champions League goals tally, although they may both be a step too far.
Haaland sets Premier League record
He leads the Premier League goal-scoring charts with an astonishing 36 goals in 33 matches, a tally which has seen him surpass the record of 34 shared by Alan Shearer and Andy Cole, which had stood for almost 30 years. After a fairly slow start to the campaign by their own high standards, City are now almost certain to win their fifth Premier League title in six years.
However, Haaland’s signing was made with a clear focus on the Champions League, where the City hierarchy hope that the addition of an elite goalscorer will finally delivery the success that has eluded them. And the Norwegian has so far shown exactly how lethal he can be against top sides.
How many Champions League goals has Haaland scored?
The Norwegian has not only scored more Champions League goals (35) than games he has played (28) but he has done so for each of the three clubs he has featured for in the competition. He scored eight in six matches for Salzburg, 15 in 13 while at Dortmund and has now hit 12 in nine for Manchester City.
He became the only player to score a first-half hat-trick on his Champions League debut for the Austrians at the age of 19 and is one of only three players – alongside Alessandro Del Piero and Diego Costa – to have scored in each of his first five appearances. Haaland is also the man to have reached a number of goalscoring milestones the fastest: 10 goals (seven games), 15 goals (12 games), 20 goals (14 games), 25 goals (20 games), 30 goals (25 games) and 35 goals (27 games).
In his 28-game Champions League career to date, Ajax (one match), City (two games while at Dortmund) and now Real Madrid are the only teams he has faced without scoring. But there’s time for that to change on Wednesday.