Wednesday, February 19, 2020

The night of Erling Haaland at Signal Iduna Park



During the winter transfer, Erling Haaland decided to join Borussia Dortmund instead of his mentor, Ole Gunner club Manchester United, and since he joi9ned the club, so far, it seems, he has become a part and parcel of the vibrant fans at Dortmund. He scores goals like a goal-machine and involves the whole of Dortmund with him in the carnival.

The passionate supporters of Yellow Wall form a considerable part of Dortmund’s sales pitch and any young gun would love to experience it. After one and a half months, Haaland is basking in its adulation -  He raised his arms above his head in celebration. He offered a thumbs-up. Mostly, he just stared.

One could never consider Paris Saint-Germain as one of the competent units to breach the Yellow Wall at their own den. They have a Neymar and Kylian Mbappe to run the show, but still, somewhere, the team as a whole lacked the composure to sustain the pressure.  Neymar did score to equalize, but his effort and the x-factor of Mbappe had been canceled out single-handedly by the wonder kid from Norway – Erling Haaland.

Borussia Dortmund's five Bundesliga clashes since returning from the winter break have yielded no less than 30 goals and their start to the match was inspiring – Jadon Sancho posed a constant threat to the PSG backline, who could do nothing but just sit back and brace themselves against the storm and hope Navas could live up to the task.

The goals were not coming.

Lucien Favre brought on a third teenage striker on the pitch in the shape of Giovanni Reyna and it paid off. The tempo increased more. Haaland found himself in the right place to poke home the rebound from Raphael Guerreiro's deflected effort. Then he thundered a shot two minutes after Neymar’s equalizer, which triggered the party.

Haaland gave Dortmund a priceless advantage. He drew level with Robert Lewandowski as the Champions League's top scorer in 2019-20, with an incredible 10 goals in seven outings so far, thus becoming the fastest man ever to reach double figures in the competition. In Dortmund colours, overall, he already boasts 11 in just four starts.

At 19, Haaland looks well set to rule the world. In front of the goal, the kid is just astonishing. And his pace and skill are just mind-blowing. Single-handedly, he is turning around a Dortmund season that looked in danger of petering out into mediocrity as recently as one month ago.

The stage is set to witness one of the greats of the game in the coming days.

Note: This article has been posted at Cricketsoccer as CSdesk on 19/02/2020 The night of Erling Haaland at Signal Iduna Park 

Thank You
Faisal Caesar 

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