‘I wanted a double hat-trick’ - Erling Haaland jokes he was tired of celebrating after scoring five vs Leipzig

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.

Haaland 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.”