Scorer of five goals against Leipzig, Haaland equals Messi and Luiz Adriano marks

Erling Haaland surprised the football world by scoring five goals in the thrashing of manchester city over the RB Leipzig through the round of 16 of Champions League this Tuesday. The Norwegian became the third player in history to achieve the feat, alongside Lionel Messi and Luiz Adriano.

The striker was a starter in the match that secured Manchester City in the quarterfinals of this season’s Champions League. In the first half, Haaland scored three times, one of them a penalty. On the return of the break, he scored twice more and, with 57 minutes on the field, reached the fifth goal. At the end, The English won 7-0.

📊 Players with 5 goals in a single UCL match:

🇦🇷 Messi vs Leverkusen
🇬🇧 Luiz Adriano vs BATE Borisov
🇳🇴 Erling Haaland vs RB Leipzig

Select group! pic.twitter.com/UFW97qIUKH

— Footstats I2A (@Footstats) March 14, 2023

After the final whistle, Haaland revealed that he had never scored five goals in the same game. The striker explained his motivation for scoring so many times and even joked with Pep Guardiola, who replaced him in the 17th minute of the second half.

“I don’t think so, I’ve already scored nine, four, but not five. “I would love to stay (on the field), but I don’t have much to say about it. I’m proud to have scored five goals,” said the player in an interview with TNT Sports.

“I love scoring goals. I love the feeling of scoring goals.

In addition to Haaland, only Lionel Messi and Luiz Adriano have managed to score five times in the same Champions League match. The Norwegian, however, became the youngest player and with the fewest appearances in the competition to reach the mark. Manchester City’s number 9, aged 22, needed just 25 games.

Lionel Messi scored five goals in the same match in 2012, when he was still playing for barcelona. In the 7-1 victory over Bayer Leverkusen for the round of 16 of the Champions League. Luiz Adriano, in turn, equaled the record in 2014, in Shakhtar Donetsk’s 7-0 against BATE Borisov.

With the five goals, Haaland also became the youngest player to score 30 times in the Champions League. The striker has 33 goals scored in the competition, an average of 1.32 goals per game. The numbers put him in 22nd place in the history of the tournament. The only Brazilian in front of him is Neymar, who has 43 goals.