Haaland’s penta-trick smashes Leipzig and takes City to ¼ of UCL in the return leg of the ⅛ finals, 7-0.
Relative to last weekend’s minimal win over Crystal Palace, there is only one change to the Cityzens‘ starting line-up, with Kevin de Bruyne taking the place of Phil Foden.
The match starts with Ilkay Gundogan’s shot above the goal. City restrict themselves to that, launching a real assault. The visitors simply squeeze into their penalty area and hardly touch the ball.
Eventually, the hosts force their opponents to make a mistake. Benjamin Henrichs gets his hand on the ball after a Rodri header, giving rise to a penalty. Erling Haaland is absolutely calm on the spot-kick to make it 1-0.
In the next attack, Haaland scores a double. Erling heads the ball into the net after de Bruyne’s long-range effort hit the crossbar to make it 2-0.
In the second half, City lose their grip and even show some nervousness in defence, but they remain dangerous in attack. Haaland and Gundogan each have a chance to make it a blowout but Red Bulls‘ goalkeeper Janis Blaswich prevents their shots from close range.
Still, the third goal comes just before the break. Dias heads the ball over the bar following a corner-kick, Haaland keeps the defender away for a 3-0 lead.
The second half starts with a fourth goal for the Cityzens. Gundogan takes the ball on the edge of the penalty area, moves it under his left foot and shoots low to make it 4-0.
In the 53rd minute, Blaswich prevents Haaland and Akanji from scoring after a corner, but the same Erling fails to tackle for a third successive goal to make it 5-0.
The next corner also turns into a goal. Blaswich makes another save, but the unstoppable Haaland immediately puts the ball that bounced back to him into the net to make it 6-0.
Numerous substitutions soon follow and the tempo of the game slows down. City still dominate and still create chances, but RB Leipzig no longer look so hopeless.
It looks like the visitors would at least manage to avoid conceding goals for the rest of the match, but in stoppage time, de Bruyne gives his opponents one more chance with a twisting strike from distance to make it 7-0.
From the outset, City begin to destroy their opponents, not allowing them to catch their breath. RB Leipzig are not expecting such an attacking performance and the German defenders panic at the sight of Haaland.
Haaland’s penta-trick smashes Leipzig and takes City to ¼ of UCL on cityzensworld.com.
