He scores and scores and scores… Erling Haaland has become the English top club’s goal guarantee in his first season in a Manchester City shirt. In the second Champions League duel against FC Bayern, the Norwegian set another record on Wednesday and drew level with a real legend in the leaderboard.
32 goals in the league, twelve in the Champions League, three in the FA Cup and another in the League Cup: what other strikers need two years for, Erling Haaland only needed eight and a half months in the Manchester City jersey.
In 41 competitive games for his new club, the Norwegian has now scored an unbelievable 48 times. With his goal on Wednesday in the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinals against FC Bayern, he broke an existing record and caught up with a real legend.
With his 1-0 win in Munich, the striker has increased his goal tally to twelve goals in the current Champions League season. Only once in the history of the premier class has a Premier League professional scored so many goals in one season.
The Dutchman Ruud van Nistelrooy achieved this feat in the 2002/03 season in the Manchester United jersey. The Oranje legend scored twelve times in nine games. Haaland has needed eight games for his twelve goals so far. So the Norwegian even surpassed van Nistelrooy’s top quota.
Haaland could set another record
Alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, Ruud van Nistelrooy is the only top scorer in the Champions League to have come from a Premier League club. Should ManCity win the title this year, Haaland would almost certainly follow in the footsteps of the two superstars here as well.
In the current top scorer list, the Norwegian is ahead by a nose with twelve goals. The second best players remaining in the competition are Vinícius Júnior (Real Madrid) and João Mário (Benfica) with “only” six goals each.
He showed in Munich in the first half that even Erling Haaland is not infallible when he missed a penalty. It was the superstar’s first missed shot from the point in 16 attempts, excluding penalties, and his first missed penalty for City.
The last time he missed was on April 21, 2021 in a Borussia Dortmund jersey against Union Berlin (2-0). At that time, however, Marco Reus scored to make it 1-0.
