The Norwegian striker Erling Haaland, the English Manchester City striker, has become a real threat to the numbers and personal achievements of the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, the Saudi Al-Nasr player, in the European Champions League competition.
The Portuguese star holds a number of personal records in the Champions League, the most prominent of which is that he is the tournament’s all-time top scorer (140 goals), 11 goals ahead of his Argentine rival Lionel Messi. Cristiano also engraved his name as the competition’s top scorer in one season, as he scored 17 goals in a season. 2013-2014, which ended with Real Madrid being crowned “tenth place”, at the expense of arch-neighbor Atletico Madrid.
The Spanish newspaper “Sport” believes that Haaland (23 years old) has become a real threat to Cristiano’s numbers, noting that he is capable of snatching at least one of them, which is related to the number of goals scored in one season.
Haaland visited the opponents’ net in the Champions League 12 times last season 2022-2023, which is a “wonderful” tally, but he froze, 5 goals shy of Cristiano Ronaldo’s record.
Arling Haaland…the machine#Champions League | #UEFA_Champions_League Final | #Manchester_City_Inter #UCLfinal | #beINFİNAL | #MCIINT pic.twitter.com/8OoaoYDxyR
– beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) June 10, 2023
Haaland was close to increasing his goal tally, but the Belgian Thibaut Courtois, Real Madrid’s goalkeeper, excelled against the Norwegian striker in particular, back and forth in the semi-finals, and prevented him from scoring even though he received 5 goals from Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva (twice), Manuel Akanji and Julian. Alvarez.
Haaland also failed to score against Inter Milan in the final match, leaving this task to his colleague Rodri, who scored the only goal of the match, giving the “Citizens” their first ever Champions League title.
According to “Sport”, Haaland needs something like a miracle in order to break Ronaldo’s record, but at the same time it indicated the possibility of this happening, as it recalled the five goals he scored against Leipzig, in the second leg of the round of 16 in last season’s edition.
It is noteworthy that the draw placed Leipzig with Manchester City in Group G, along with the Serbian Red Star and Swiss Young Boys, which means that Haaland will have a great opportunity to score the largest number of goals in the first round.
Erling Haaland’s five ⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️
Haaland becomes the third player to score 5 goals in one Champions League match after Lionel Messi and Luis Adriano#Champions League | #Manchester_City_Leipzig #Haaland #beINUCL | #UCL pic.twitter.com/WIWNbrYZVV
– beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) March 14, 2023
Haaland finished last season at the top of the Champions League scorers’ table with 12 goals, 4 goals behind Egyptian star Mohamed Salah, Liverpool striker, who finished second despite his team’s elimination from Real Madrid in the round of 16.
