Erling Haaland pushed his goals tally up to an amazing 19 across every competition this season. He scored another two goals during Manchester City’s 5-1 defeat of FC Copenhagen in Champions League Group G on Wednesday.
Haaland was quick in his efforts to get City moving with another goal in his impressive season, hitting his first strike of the game and then putting the game beyond the Danish side in the span of 32 minutes.
City continued to score and added another six minutes prior to the break, as David Khocholava put through his own net while Haaland waiting just behind to try and score his second treble of four days.
There wasn’t a goal for Haaland after he was pulled out at half-time, however the goals kept coming in as Riyad Mahrez hit home the penalty and Julian Alvarez finished things off with a fifth goal in the closing minutes.
The most comfortable win that could be achieved. City gained an maximum of nine points from the group. They need two more points to ensure of making it to the knockout stages. Copenhagen are last on one point after three games.
“Erling Haaland wants to win the game. the hat-tricks do not matter,” City coach Pep Guardiola said to reporters. “We must get everyone in the game. I am aware of the issues that we are facing right today -for instance, Kyle Walker is out for an extended period of time — however, we have players on the bench such as Rico Lewis, even though they are only 17.
“This is the greatest award we could ever get over and above even Premier League, the biggest we could receive.”
There could have been restless nights for Copenhagen’s defenders following the moment that Haaland scored his third goal since his arrival at City in the closing stages of the campaign with Manchester United on Sunday.
It took just seven seconds on Wednesday, for the dreams to come true during the Manchester rain in the Manchester rain, when Haaland struck into Joao Cancelo’s move back.
The Norwegian was at the right spot in the right moment to convert the rebound following Sergio Gomez’s shot was saved.
In the absence of scoring or contribute in the game of Borussia Dortmund in their match against City in April 2021 Haaland was subsequently directly playing in 41 goals during his 23 appearances at home in club play, scoring the score of 35 goals and six assists.
“It’s amazing, honestly,” Jack Grealish told BT Sport when asked about Haaland. “I’ve never seen something like it in my entire life. The first and second goal, I laughed. He’s always there.
“The Keeper told me something as I was returning. He said , ‘He’s not human He’s not human!’ I replied ‘what do you think you’re telling me something?’ Hope he’ll continue this manner and bring our place in the spotlight.”
If it wasn’t for the former Liverpool academy goalie Kamil Grabara Haaland might have had an unbeaten first-half and City could have had an historic win, considering the number of shots they took in the first half.
They were forced to deal with one more goal before the break, with Khocholava scoring his own goal was scored, with Mahrez getting involved at the penalty spot in the second period, after a foul was committed on Aymeric Laporte, who was in the penalty spot.
His third score for City in all competitions was the cherry on the cake. the hosts failing to capitalize on opportunities to make the score more impressive.
The City scored 20 times in the last five matches, and winning all five times, an indication that Pep Guardiola’s team is in the top of their game.
“We played a lot of defense and that’s the way it is when you’re facing an impressive squad,” Copenhagen’s Mohamed Daramy stated on TV3+. “We were tough and did everything possible.”
