Erling Haaland of Norway and Borussia Dortmund only knows how to score goals and he just makes them look so easy. He was at his pristine best yet again last night at Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium against Sevilla. He scored twice and ensured a much-needed away win for Dortmund.
Haaland scored twice and began the move that ended with Mahmoud Dahoud curling in a lovely shot to give Borussia Dortmund a 3-1 first-half lead that had looked set to be unassailable.
Sevilla, seemingly shell-shocked at that stage, did though recover in the second half to make a match of it. They may even have kept the tie alive, with Luuk De Jong making it 3-2 and setting up a frantic finish that suggests they can hurt Dortmund in two weeks.
When it comes to hurt, though, there are few players like Haaland, who said he had been inspired by Mbappé’s display at Camp Nou.
Sevilla started in a commendable fashion with Suso turning inside, shaping to hit it, and sending Jadon Sancho jumping to block a shot that did not come.
Taking another step closer, when he did shoot, the ball passed Jude Bellingham, clipped the toe of Mats Hummels, and ended up in the net.
The goal reignited Haaland.
Sancho’s footwork was fast, Dahoud slipped smoothly through the middle, and Bellingham passed and moved with confidence.
And, meanwhile, sloppiness was evident in the Sevilla team, who gave away easy balls and left spaces.
Enters Haaland - He smacked a shot that boomed and echoed round an empty arena. Bono saved that one but not the next.
The second goal came like a gigantic wave - Haaland shrugging off Jordan, running at Sevilla and seeking a one-two with Sancho, whose return pass was superb, subtly spun into the Norwegian’s path to finish.
Still, he came, the third was made by Marco Reus, who robbed Ivan Rakitic and Papu Gómez and dribbled to the edge of the area before passing to his right. Haaland guided the ball into the net then knelt, arms raised, convinced this was now over.
Erling Haaland became the first player in Champions League history to score at least 17 goals in his first 13 appearances.
After previously becoming the fastest to five and 10 goals in Champions League play, Haaland became the only player to reach at least 17 goals in his first 13 appearances in the competition.
He has scored 10 Champions League goals in just seven appearances for Borussia Dortmund, the quickest which a player has ever reached 10 goals for a single team in the competition, breaking Roy Makaay's record with Bayern Munich.
With Haaland's second accurate finish against Sevilla last night, he moved into a tie with Robert Lewandowski for most Champions League goals since the start of last season.
Haaland holds an edge over many of today's most celebrated European attackers by way of pure early-career goal-scoring.
Lewandowski and Luis Suarez hadn't yet featured in the Champions League when they were Haaland's age (20), while Cristiano Ronaldo had failed to score in 1,299 minutes of action at Manchester United.
Haaland has averaged about 1.64 goals per 90 minutes in the competition to this point, far more than Lionel Messi (0.47) and Kylian Mbappe (0.67) had through their age-20 campaigns.
Indeed, Haaland is magnificent.
Note: This article has been posted in Cricketsoccer as CSdesk on 18/02/2021 The magnificent Ernlig Haaland
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