Manchester City’s Norwegian striker Erling Haaland (right) celebrates after scoring the team’s sixth goal, his fifth, during the Champions League round of 16 second-leg match against RB Leipzig. AFP
Manchester: Erling Haaland equalled a Champions League record with a five-goal haul to ease Manchester City into the quarter-finals at RB Leipzig's expense as a 7-0 win for the English Champions secured an 8-1 aggregate victory yesterday.
Haaland also set a new club record for goals in a season of 39 in the process as Pep Guardiola's men reached the last eight for the sixth consecutive season.
The tie was delicately balanced after a 1-1 draw in eastern Germany three weeks ago.
Guardiola had kept Kevin De Bruyne in reserve for City's 1-0 win at Crystal Palace in the Premier League at the weekend and on his return to the starting line-up, the Belgian was back to his best. Haaland's searing pace then created a chance out of nothing from Nathan Ake's long ball, but Janis Blaswich raced out from his goal to block.
Leipzig did have cause for complaint over two controversial calls that had a massive impact on the game before half-time. Firstly, VAR spotted a handball against Benjamin Henrichs that led to a penalty that neither the City players nor the crowd even noticed.
Haaland fired low to Blaswich's left to maintain his perfect record from the spot for City with his sixth penalty of the season. Two minutes later it was 2-0 as Haaland teed up De Bruyne, who smashed a shot against the bar, and then showed his speed and strength to power home a header from the rebound. Any doubt over the outcome was ended with the final action of the first half.
Ruben Dias rose highest to head Jack Grealish's corner onto the post and Amadou Haidara's attempted clearance ricocheted off Haaland into the net.
Gundogan's classy finish into the far corner four minutes into the second half rubbed more salt into Leipzig's wounds before Haaland started rewriting the record books. Haaland set a new mark with still three months of the campaign to go when he snaffled up another rebound after Blaswich saved from Manuel Akanji.
In the process, he moved level with Lionel Messi and Luiz Adriano's record of scoring five goals in a Champions League game. But Guardiola denied his star striker the chance of another record as he replaced him with Julian Alvarez with 25 minutes remaining.
Instead, it was left to De Bruyne to have the final say as he curled a superb strike into the top corner in stoppage time.
Elsewhere, Inter Milan also qualified for the quarter-finals after a 0-0 draw at Porto gave them a 1-0 aggregate win. Inter made the last eight for the first time since 2011 thanks to Romelu Lukaku's lone goal in Milan.
