Erling Haaland scored an astonishing five goals as Manchester City crushed RB Leipzig 7-0 into the Champions League quarterfinals.
It started when Haaland converted a penalty in the 22nd-minute after the VAR spotted a Benjamin Henrichs handball from Jack Grealish’s corner.
In the video area, Vincic decided that defender Benjamin Henrichs had handled the ball. Though the handball contact was minimal, the decision to award a penalty will further the debate on how VAR might/should be used in the future.
Manchester City then doubled the lead within two minutes when Kevin De Bruyne struck against the crossbar and Haaland headed the rebound into an net.
Haaland had his fifth hat-trick of the season after Ruben Dias hit the post from a corner in first-half stoppage time and further dismal set-piece defending from Leipzig meant City’s No. 9 was able to match Lionel Messi and Luiz Adriano’s record of five in a single Champions League match. Ilkay Gundogan got in on the act early in the second half and De Bruyne netted a seventh goal late on.
Man City vs RB Leipzig final score
| 1H | 2H | Final | |
| MCI | 3 | 4 | 7 |
| RBL | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Goals:
MCI — Erling Haaland (pen) —22nd minute.
MCI — Erling Haaland — 24th minute.
MCI — Erling Haaland — 45th+2 minute.
MCI — Ilkay Gundogan (Jack Grealish) — 49th minute.
MCI — Erling Haaland — 54th minute.
MCI — Erling Haaland — 57th minute.
MCI — Kevin De Bruyne (Riyad Mahrez) — 90th minute+1.
Haaland Exploits Now Matches Messi
Leipzig were spared the indignity of potentially conceding a double hat-trick when Guardiola let his star forward put his feet up, meaning he has to share his single-game record with Messi and Luiz Adriano for now. He has 33 goals in the Champions League overall, a figure he has reached in 28 games. Ruud van Nistelrooy was the previous quickest to that mark in an impressive but human 38 outings.
Haaland’s debut season at Manchester City, where debates over whether he’s made the team better as a whole or not are still — honestly — worth having despite nights like this, has now brought him 39 goals. A half-century is absolutely on the cards after the international break when City could play 18 more matches if they go the distance in the Champions League and FA Cup. Could he get 60?
RB Leipzig Players React After The Loss
Though RB Leipzig’s players were unhappy with the refereeing decisions after the game, they admitted that seven goals was not all a mistake or luck.
“I spoke to the referee again, and he told me that he didn’t see a handball but that the VAR had alerted him, so he went and checked the replay and awarded the penalty,” Henrichs said after the game. “For me, it wasn’t a penalty, but when you lose 7-0, it doesn’t need to be spoken about too much.”
According to Leipzig head coach Marco Rose, “There were two reasons behind our defeat today,” Rose said. “One was our aggression in duels at set pieces, and the other was that we didn’t find any solutions against their press when we had possession. In that regard, I also take responsibility because maybe I didn’t give the team enough instructions. We never got into the game in any way. The result is very tough to take.”
“Man City were too good for us today, and they more than deserved their win. Of course, we don’t want to accept that going forward. We want to continue developing,” he added.
Though Rose might not be at risk of losing his coaching job over his team’s loss to Man City, there will be fundamental questions at Cottaweg 7 in Leipzig come Wednesday morning. Leipzig did win the DFB Pokal last season but only just about managed to qualify for the Champions League.
This season, Rose has turned things down domestically. Leipzig is firmly in the top four and could, in theory, still get involved in the Bundesliga title race. In the Pokal quarterfinals, Leipzig will face Dortmund on April 5. The focus will be now on those two competitions after the major UCL disappointment.
The outcome of these two competitions will determine what will be next. Rose is the man of the future, but sporting director Max Eberl might overhaul the squad because one thing is for certain, silverware in Europe is the expected outcome by the decision makers both in Leipzig but also at Red Bull HQ in Austria—not 7-0 defeats to Man City.
