How many goals has Erling Haaland scored in the Champions League?

After recharging his batteries in the summer, Manchester City striker Erling Haaland has enjoyed a scintillating start to the 2024 Premier League season, which he is now hoping to carry into the Champions League.

The Norwegian striker drew a blank in the Community Shield against Manchester United, but has since scored nine goals in City’s opening four league fixtures, including back-to-back hat-tricks against Ipswich Town and West Ham United, as well as a double in his most recent appearance against Brentford.

The 24-year-old heads into Wednesday’s home game against Inter Milan, City’s first in the ‘new’ Champions League, having netted just once in his last four UCL appearances, quite the goal drought by his own incredibly high standards. Nevertheless, his record in the competition remains sensational.

What is Haaland’s goals-per-game ratio in the Champions League? Ronaldo, Messi comparisons

Since making his Champions League debut for Austrian club Salzburg in September 2019, Haaland has scored 41 goals in 39 games, an average of 1.05 goals per game.

To put that into some kind of perspective, Cristiano Ronaldo, the competition’s all-time top scorer with 140 goals in 183 appearances, had a goalscoring ratio of 0.77 goals per game, while Lionel Messi, second on the list, comes in at 0.79 (129 goals in 163 games).

Of Haaland’s contemporaries, Real Madrid striker Kylian Mbappé has scored more (49 in 74 matches) but has a significantly lower goals-per-game average (0.66).

Haaland’s other UCL records

The Norwegian has not only scored more Champions League goals (41) than games he has played (39) but he has done so for two of the three clubs he has featured for in the competition. He scored eight in six matches for Salzburg and 15 in 13 while at Dortmund.

Perhaps surprisingly, his worst ratio is with City, for whom he has still managed 18 goals in 20 appearances.

Haaland 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.

The striker is also the man to have reached a number of goalscoring milestones the fastest: 15 goals (12 games), 20 goals (14 games), 25 goals (20 games), 30 goals (25 games), 35 goals (27 games) and 40 goals (35 games).

Which teams has Haaland failed to score against in the Champions League?

In his 39-game Champions League career to date, Ajax (one match), Crvena Zvezda (one), City (two while at Dortmund), Real Madrid (four) and Wednesday’s opponents Inter (the 2023 Champions League final) are the only teams he has faced without scoring.