Haaland removes Man Utd and Liverpool icons from history books with new record
Erling Haaland has become the first ever Premier League player to score 45 goals in all competitions during a single season.
Haaland achieved the remarkable feat by scoring in Manchester City's 3-0 victory against Bayern Munich at the Etihad on Tuesday night. Pep Guardiola's side will take a big lead to Bavaria for the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie next week.
Haaland's latest goal means he's now scored one more than Mohamed Salah did for Liverpool during the 2017/18 campaign. He has also overshadowed Manchester United hero Ruud van Nistelrooy, who matched Salah's tally of 44 goals during the 2002/03 season.
City took the lead against Bayern thanks to Rodri's sublime first-half strike. Haaland then set up the second goal by putting the ball on a plate for Bernardo Silva before John Stones assisted the Norwegian to make it 3-0. Haaland's goal was a typical poacher's strike.
"A really, really well-worked goal from Manchester City," said Lucy Ward, the former Leeds forward, on commentary. "They get in those areas, they don’t panic and it was always ominous that Haaland hadn’t scored yet. [He was] involved in the second goal.
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"It was a clever little header, this, from Stones. It’s come across and he’s not offside, I think that’s what the Bayern players were looking for. Clever little dink across and we know he can finish them. He’s kept his patience, Haaland, he’s got his assist and he’s got his goal."
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Haaland has a brilliant record against Bayern - now scoring six times - but City's win on Tuesday night was his first against the Bavarian club at the eighth attempt.
Unless something dramatic happens when City travel to Germany in eight days' time, Guardiola's side will face the winners of Real Madrid's clash with Frank Lampard's Chelsea in the semi-finals. City lost to holders Real at the same stage last season.
Yet Haaland and his team-mates will be confident of winning City's maiden European Cup in June. Joleon Lescott told BT Sport at full-time, "It’s a huge result, huge performance. Bayern might be favourites, but the messages after this game I’m sure will be the job’s only half done, but they have to be confident they’re going to go through to the semi-finals."
Owen Hargreaves added, "That’s how you win the Champions League - exactly like that. Defensively they were absolutely brilliant, defensively that was a completely different Manchester City. They were absolutely flawless."
Rio Ferdinand also praised City's defence. He said, "I was sitting there thinking wow, the way that this team are defending - wow. I think that back four - [Manuel] Akanji and [Nathan] Ake one-v-one were exceptional, they nullified the threats wide that we highlighted before the game have been so dangerous.
"[Ruben] Dias, the amount of blocks he put in was phenomenal and Stones, defensively winning the ball, that was great as well. That there is the platform that builds everything else and decides what happens in other areas."
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