‘I wanted a double hat-trick’ - Erling Haaland jokes he was tired of celebrating after scoring five vs Leipzig
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Erling Haaland said he wanted to score more in Manchester City’s Champions League win over RB Leipzig, than the five he netted as the Blues won 7-0 on Tuesday.
Pep Guardiola’s men were at their absolute best at the Etihad in the second leg of the last-16 tie, as they pressed relentlessly, moved the ball excellently and created repeated chances for their no.9. Haaland became just the third player ever to net five in a single Champions League match and is the youngest player to reach the 30-goal mark in the competition’s history.
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Hide AdHaaland is now on 39 goals for the season in all competitions, and has broken City’s all-time record for most goals in single campaign, previously held Tommy Johnson when he netted 38 in the 1928/29 season.
Speaking after his outstanding display, Haaland admitted he couldn’t even immediately recall all of his goals, while he joked he was ‘tired’ after all his celebrations. “It’s a big night. I’m really proud to play [in the] Champions League, I love this competition… five goals, to win 7-0 at home, I’m so happy,” he told BT Sport.
“I’m a bit blurry in my head, so I don’t remember the goals. I was so tired after the celebrations. We have to put pressure, we have to run. In my opinion we should do this more - a lot of goals I didn’t think, it was just doing it, just trying to get the ball in the back of the net.
“A lot of goals today I didn’t think. I was just doing it in the penalty area. I was just trying to get the ball into the back of the net. It was the same with the second goal, same with the third and every goal. A lot of it is just being quick in the mind and trying to do the right thing and trying to put it where the keeper is not and I think a little bit of it is quality of course but a lot of it is in the head.
“I told Pep when I went off that I would like to score a double hat-trick,” he added. “But what can you do? I have to come off.”
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