Haaland breaks Manchester City’s record in one season

Erling Haaland broke Manchester City’s one-season goal record with his fifth goal of the game in their Champions League round of 16 second-leg win over RB Leipzig on Tuesday.

Haaland, 22, now has 39 goals in all competitions for City this season, beating the 38 mark set by Tommy Johnson in the 1928/29 season.

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The Norway international was the fastest player to score 30 goals in the competition – he finished the evening with 33 of 25 UCL goals – as he gave the English champions a 2-0 first-half lead.

“I’m fuzzy in my head. I remember shooting but not thinking,” Haaland said. “It’s a big night. First of all, I’m proud to play in this competition, I love it. Five goals. Winning 7-0 is incredible.

“My super strength is scoring goals. Should I be honest? A lot of goals today, I didn’t think so. I was just trying to get it to the back of the net. A lot of it is quick in my head and trying to do it there place where the goalkeeper is not.”

At 22 years and 236 days, Haaland is also the youngest player to reach that 30-goal mark, surpassing Kylian Mbappe, who was 22 years and 352 days when he scored his 30th Champions League goal.

But Haaland wasn’t done, scoring three more goals 57 minutes ago to equal his five-plus total and put his side 6-0 ahead in the evening before being substituted by Pep Guardiola just after the hour mark.

The hosts won the game 7-0, with Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan also scoring as Man City advanced to the quarter-finals with an 8-1 aggregate win.

Haaland, who has scored ten goals in six Champions League games this season, said the team took time in training to work on pressing on the eve of the clash.

“Especially at home we have to run and press. We’re so good at getting the ball,” he said. “I think we can use it [pressing] In addition, the boys have more space to play in between. Compared to last year and now we can play with a striker in the back and I’m trying to bring that.

“I said [Guardiola] I would love to score a double hat-trick but what can I do?” he added when he was substituted before becoming the first player to ever score six goals in a single Champions League game.

After the match, Guardiola explained his reasons for taking out Haaland when he did, saying: “If he hits that milestone at 22, his life would be boring. He has something to achieve.”

The standout night for Haaland put him in elite company as only Lionel Messi and Luiz Adriano have scored five goals in a single Champions League game. Haaland is also only the third player to score 10 or more goals in a single European season, with Messi having done so five times and Cristiano Ronaldo seven.

Perhaps more notably, Haaland has 11 Premier League games left and with City also alive in the FA Cup and Champions League, the records could fall further.

Twenty-eight of Haaland’s goals came in England’s top flight, where he has an excellent chance of overtaking joint top scorers Alan Shearer and Andy Cole on 34 goals each.

Next up are Man City at the Etihad (Stream live on ESPN+ at 1:45 p.m. ET).