Soccer Planet: Haaland The Cyborg – S Chronicles

Erling Haaland has inherited the nickname “Cyborg” and it’s not just to do with his vaguely robotic face. The guy is almost a machine on the pitch.

The Norwegian striker showed his dominance again this week in Manchester City’s 7-0 win over Leipzig in the Champions League round of 16 with five goals.

He became just the third player to reach a quintuple in the Champions League final, along with Lionel Messi with Barcelona and Luiz Adriano with Shakhtar Donetsk.

Haaland’s achievement, however, lies in scoring his five goals in just 35 minutes, between the 22nd and 57th minutes. Messi had done it in 84 minutes and Adriano in 82.

Haaland eventually played an hour when Pep Guardiola decided to take him out of the game in the 63rd minute, a decision that was controversial.

Indeed, Guardiola has been criticized for depriving his young charge of a chance to go down in history as no player has yet managed six of a kind in the final stages of the Champions League.

decision criticized

The media therefore criticized Guardiola, the Spanish publication AS does not go there with the dead hand, as Jean Perron would say.

“Guardiola has kept the Norwegian striker from breaking a Champions League record that neither Leo Messi nor Cristiano Ronaldo have. […] He stopped Erling Haaland from overtaking Leo Messi and Luiz Adriano to single-handedly become the only player to score the most goals in a single Champions League game. »

Guardiola, for his part, downplayed the criticism.

“If he manages to score six Champions League goals at 22, his life will be boring. Now he can do it in the future. Seriously, I made the switch because it was game over. »

steamroller

This performance illustrates the dominance of the 22-year-old who has been burning everything in his path this season.

With 28 goals in 26 Premier League games, Haaland is a real steamroller. He added ten in the Champions League and one in the League Cup for a total of 39 goals in 36 games in all competitions.

It’s an overwhelming production rate that will make you daydream, because let’s remember again that he’s only 22 years old. So we can assume the best is yet to come.

We understand better why all the big European clubs have their eye on him, especially Real Madrid.

You only have to look at a few statistics to convince yourself that Haaland has that certain something.

Impressive numbers

With his fivefold, he has scored 33 Champions League goals in 25 career games.

At just 22 years and 236 days, Haaland is the youngest player to reach 30 goals in the Champions League. Former record holder Kylian Mbappé had reached this milestone at the age of 22 years and 352 days.

With 28 goals in 26 Premier League games, he is just five goals away from breaking the record of 32 goals set by Mo Salah in 2017/18. He still has eleven games to play this season.

Haaland alone has scored more goals than eight Premier League teams: Southampton, Wolverhampton and Everton (20), Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace (21), West Ham (24), Bournemouth (25) and Chelsea (27).

EDEN HAZARD BITES

Photo: AFP

Defender Eder Militao met Eden Hazard (right) during a practice session in Real Madrid training.

Once one of the best midfielders in the world, Belgium’s Eden Hazard is unhappy at Real Madrid, where he has not played a La Liga game since 9/11 and is behind Vinicius. Also, he has no real relationship with his coach Carlos Ancelotti, with whom he speaks little, which Ancelotti has confirmed. “The relationship is not cold,” notes the coach. Hazard was honest, we don’t talk much because talking is also a character thing. We talk to some people more than others. “It’s clear it’s blurry.

VIOLENCE IN NAPLES

The second leg between Eintracth Frankfurt and Napoli earlier this week saw more action on the streets of Napoli than on the pitch. About 600 German Ultras made their way, although ticket sales were restricted. The result: clashes in the streets of Naples, in which at least six police officers were injured and two German partisans were stabbed. Vehicles were also set on fire.

FIFA is despicable according to LA LIGA

The expansion of the World Cup to 48 nations in 2026 and the Club World Cup to 32 teams not only makes people happy. Spain’s La Liga was harsh as it denounced FIFA’s “complete disregard” for domestic competitions. “FIFA continues its bad practice of making unilateral decisions about the world football calendar, which shows a total disregard for the importance of national championships and the football community in general. FIFA is completely ignoring the economic damage these decisions are inflicting on leagues around the world,” it said in a statement.

REFEREE SOON TO KLANG

Why does an official make this or that decision and what is his conclusion after a video consultation? We may have that answer soon as, in a reform, the French Football Federation (FFF) has begun to scrutinize the arbitration process in depth, intends to question officials. The FFF has made a request to the International Football Association Board, the body that governs the Laws of the Game, and is awaiting a response. We will try the experiment anyway during a match between Olympique Lyonnais and Nantes without the audio being broadcast live.

games to watch

PHILADELPHIA vs. MONTREAL

This is CF Montreal’s first home game of the season. Hernan Losada’s side lost their first three games by shutout.

LEICESTER vs. BRENTFORD

Leicester have one foot in relegation as the club are level on 24 points with two others including Bournemouth, the latest club to be relegated.

LEEDS UNITED vs. WOLVERHAMPTON

Things haven’t gotten any better for Leeds since Jesse Marsch’s sacking, the team are penultimate on 23 points but also just a point away from relegation.

MARSEILLE vs. REIMS

OM are ten points behind PSG and first place and need to multiply their wins to stay in the game.