1 month ago
21
Two goals vs Monaco
©IMAGO
Manchester City were forced to work for their point in the Champions League on Wednesday night, but thankfully they had Erling Haaland to pull them through. Against a spirited Monaco side in France, the Norwegian striker broke the deadlock after just 15 minutes, when he latched on to a Josko Gvardiol cross to rifle the ball into the back of the net. The home side pulled a goal back three minutes later through Jordan Teze, but Haaland was determined to take something from the game and made sure of it in the 44th minute with a wonderfully-placed header, leaving the goalkeeper helpless in the middle of his own goal. If not for a penalty from Eric Dier moments from full-time, the towering striker would have almost single-handedly won his side all three points with his two goals.
Few would have doubted that the Man City talisman would find a way to stick the ball in the back of the net against Monaco. Not only had Haaland bagged a remarkable nine goals in seven games prior to Wednesday night’s continent test, but he also had a record in the Champions League that few in the entire sport could rival. And in many ways, since Haaland first stepped on to a pitch to the famous competition’s theme song, no goalscorer has been able to outpace the Norwegian force of nature.
Indeed, Haaland made his debut in the Champions League on September 17, 2019 when Red Bull Salzburg took on Genk. As if to start as he meant to go on, Haaland proceeded to then score a hat-trick against a dumfounded Belgian opponent, then scored another five goals in the Austrian club’s following five group games. As we all know, the towering striker didn’t slow down when he made the move to Borussia Dortmund, bagging 15 goals in 13 games in the competition, before making the move to Man City. And, following Wednesday night’s haul, Haaland has now scored 29 goals in 31 games for Pep Guardiola’s squad.
That, remarkably, puts Haaland on 52 goals in 50 games for all three clubs over the course of his career. Not only is that an average of 1.04 goals per game or a remarkable 1.16 goals per 90 in the Champions League, but it’s also a goal return that no other player has managed to surpass since that fateful day in 2019. As we can see in the graph above, no other player has scored more goals in the Champions League since Haaland made his debut in the competition, with only Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski matching the Norwegian talent. However, the Poland international has played an extra four games in the competition in that time.
Notably, no other player comes close to Haaland in this time period, with Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappé picking up six fewer goals in 14 more games, while the likes of Harry Kane, Mohamed Salah and Vinicius Jr are well off the Man City star’s pace. And considering the fact that Haaland is only 25 years of age, it seems a distinct possibility that Haaland could one day catch Cristiano Ronaldo’s record for the most goals ever in the competition’s history which stands at an impressive 140 goals. However, after Wednesday's brace, Haaland is now just 88 goals off the top spot.
