Erling Haaland is fastest player to 30 Champions League goals after hat-trick against RB Leipzig
- Planet Sport writer
- 15 March 2023
Manchester City striker Erling Haaland became the fastest and youngest player to reach 30 Champions League goals in his club's thrashing of RB Leipzig.
His five goals also brought up a fifth hat-trick of his debut season in England and here, Planet Sport looks at the significance of his performance.
Champion performer
Haaland's haul gave him 33 goals in 25 games in the competition, still aged 22.
He began the night level with Ryan Giggs and Edin Dzeko on 28, joint 28th in the Champions League era, and passed David Trezeguet, Patrick Kluivert, Roy Makaay, Kaka, Wayne Rooney, Antoine Griezmann, Samuel Eto'o and Arjen Robben, moving level with Fernando Morientes in 19th place.
Edinson Cavani is next in his sights on 35, with fellow young phenomenon Kylian Mbappe on 40 and Sergio Aguero 41, including a club-record 36 for City.
Surprisingly it is only his second hat-trick in the competition, the first coming for RB Salzburg against Genk in 2019, though he has scored twice in a game on a further 10 occasions.
He is only the third player to score five in a single Champions League game, following Lionel Messi for Barcelona against Bayer Leverkusen in 2012 and Luiz Adriano for Shakhtar Donetsk against BATE Borisov two years later.
Haaland also became the most prolific scorer in a single season for City, beating the previous record of 38 in all competitions set by Tommy Johnson in 1928-29.
Hat-trick heroics
Haaland is the first Premier League player to score five hat-tricks in a season in all competitions since Harry Kane in 2016-17.
West Brom, Fulham - in the FA Cup - Stoke, Leicester and Hull were Kane's victims, with four goals in the 6-1 win over the Foxes.
Haaland went one better with his five against Leipzig to add to four trebles in his first 13 Premier League games.
Manchester City 4 Crystal Palace 2, August 27
Trailing 2-0 at half-time to a John Stones own goal and Joachim Andersen's header, City pulled one back through Bernardo Silva before Haaland took centre stage with three goals in 20 minutes.
Manchester City 6 Nottingham Forest 0, August 31
Just four days later he put Forest to the sword with a perfect hat-trick, taking him to a record nine goals in his first five Premier League games.
Manchester City 6 Manchester United 3, October 2
Haaland and Phil Foden both scored hat-tricks as City savoured a derby success which was even more one-sided than the final scoreline appeared, after Anthony Martial's late double for United. It was Haaland's third treble in successive Premier League home games, interrupted by the international break.
Manchester City 3 Wolves 0, January 22
Three in 14 minutes either side of half-time took Haaland through the 30-goal mark for the season in all competitions, and 25 in the league.
Manchester City 7 RB Leipzig 0, March 14
Haaland had recorded his second perfect hat-trick of the season by half-time and finished with five in a 35-minute spell before he was substituted with his night's work well and truly done.
