UCL: Five-star Haaland sends City into quarterfinal as Inter hold on in Portugal

Erling Haaland was on another level in Tuesday’s Champions League match as the 22-year-old Norwegian scored five goals to lead Manchester City to a 7-0 rout of RB Leipzig and a 7-1 aggregate win that sent the Citizens into another quarterfinal draw.

The Pep Guardiola-led team drew the first leg 1-1 in Germany, and while many pundits expected City to advance, few expected the German team that gave City a run for their money in Germany to lose 7-0 in Manchester on Tuesday.

Five goals from Erling Haaland and two more from IIkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne equaled City’s biggest Champions League win since 2019 against Schalke 04 as they trounced Leipzig 8-1 on aggregate.

The Cityzens’ first attempt on goal was in the 11th minute, when Haaland raced past Orban to test Janis Blaswich.

Ederson’s pass resulted in a corner kick for the hosts, which led to City’s penalty after Henrich was adjudged by the VAR to have stopped Ruben Dias’ header with his hand in the 19th minute.

The penalty opened the floodgate of goals for City after Haaland scored the spot kick as he sent Leipzig goalkeeper Janis Blaswich the wrong way

Less than two minutes after getting the first goal, Haaland headed De Bruyne’s cross home to double the host’s lead; 78 seconds separated the two goals.

Leipzig tried to keep the deficit to two, but on the cusp of halftime, the Norwegian completed his hat trick with a tap-in off a header from Ruben Dias.

While it seemed like the second half would be less entertaining after three goals in the first half, Guardiola and his boys continued to school their visitors and their fans with goals. Gundogan scored City’s fourth in the 49th minute before Haaland continued his goal spree in the 53rd and 57th, respectively.

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The Norwegian forward’s five goals in the Champions League made him the first City player and third in Europe after Lionel Messi and Luiz Adriano.

5 – Erling Haaland is the third player to score five goals in a single UEFA Champions League game after Luiz Adriano in October 2014 (Shakhtar Donetsk vs BATE Borisov) and Lionel Messi in March 2012 (Barcelona v Bayer Leverkusen). Playground. pic.twitter.com/0eWf7fsxgv

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 14, 2023

De Bruyne completed the humiliation with a 25 yard strike from Riyad Mahrez’s pass in the 92nd minute.

While City were schooling their visitors at the Etihad, Inter Milan held Porto at the Estadio do Dragon to a 0-0 draw.

The goalless draw saw Inter Milan qualify for the quarterfinal stage for the first time since 2011. They had defeated Porto 1-0 last month in San Siro.