Erling Haaland’s five-goal haul for Manchester City against RB Leipzig broke a record previously held by Kylian Mbappe. The Erling Haaland vs Kylian Mbappe rivalry is tipped to succeed the Lionel Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo aura, with both the youngsters already in the goals galore club. Moreover, the two are now already eyeing each others’ records, with the City striker smashing one of Mbappe’s.
City were locked with RB Leipzig in the Champions League round of 16 after the first leg, which had the score tied at 1-1. But Erling Haaland completely killed the second leg at home, with a stunning first-half hat-trick before ending the game with 5 goals on the night. In the second half, Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne too scored a goal each, but it was Haaland again who stole the show by adding two more.
Erling Haaland makes City history and smashes Mbappe record
With another five goals added to his season’s tally, Erling Haaland has now scored 39 goals in all competitions this season, the most by a City player in a single season. Tommy Johnson had 38 in the 1928/29 season. The Norway international broke a 94-year-old record, while he also knocked Mbappe off his perch in reaching another impressive milestone.
Haaland has now become the youngest player in Champions League history to score 30 goals, doing so at the age of 22 years and 236 days. The City star is 116 days younger than Mbappe, who achieved the feat at the age of 22 years and 352 days. The former Red Bull Salzburg and Borussia Dortmund striker is also the fastest to achieve such a feat, having done so in only 25 appearances.
Haaland and Mbappe are the two most exciting players in the world right now, and while they also appear to be Lionel Messi ad Cristiano Ronaldo’s natural successors. The rivalry had kicked-off in 2021, when Haaland admitted that Mbappe’s hat-trick against Barcelona inspired him to score twice against Sevilla. And only recently, the Norwegian waxed poetic about the France World Cup winner, calling him ‘phenomenal’ and relishing he could play alongside him.
Haaland had told Canal Plus:
“French people are so lucky to have him (Mbappe) play for France, I wish he played for Norway of course! He’s an amazing player, so quick and so good, and he’s been doing it for so many years now already. What is he, two years older than me? It’s crazy. Sometimes you have to think that he still has 10 years left at the high level. He’s phenomenal.”
Erling Haaland scored five goals on just 30 touches against Leipzig, but he fell short of breaking Mbappe’s superstar teammate Lionel Messi’s record. No player has ever scored a double hat-trick in the Champions League, and while Haaland came close, he was replaced in the 64th minute by Julian Alvarez, while admitting that he told Guardiola about his frustrations after being taken off.