Haaland hits 5 as City advance to quarters
Inter qualify after 0-0 draw at Porto
MANCHESTER, England, March 15, (AP): On a night when Erling Haaland set new standards in the Champions League, Pep Guardiola was preoccupied with Hollywood star Julia Roberts.
Never mind a record equalling five goals in one match - or the Manchester City striker becoming the fastest and youngest player to score 30 in European club soccer’s elite competition. Guardiola had other things on his mind after the 7-0 rout of Leipzig as City advanced to the quarterfinals with an 8-1 aggregate win.
Oscar winner Roberts, the City manager explained, is one of his three idols, along with Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods.
But on a visit to the U.K. she chose to watch Manchester United, rather than Guardiola’s City team, which has won four Premier League titles in five years.
Guardiola’s comments provided a digression from Haaland’s goal scoring feats on a night when he looked like the man to finally end City’s search for a first Champions League title.
SOCCER
So much for the suggestions the Norway striker is something of a problem for Pep Guardiola.
He is a goal machine who produced a statement performance to fire City into the quarterfinals.
Haaland needed only 25 games to score 30 goals, surpassing the record held by former Manchester United and Real Madrid striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, who reached that benchmark in 34.
At 22 years, 236 days old, Haaland is also the youngest player to score 30 Champions League goals - beating Kylian Mbappé, who had broken Messi’s record.
That is exalted company to keep and was the perfect response to suggestions Haaland may have had a negative effect on a City team that trails firstplace Arsenal by five points in the Premier League.
Haaland has now scored 39 goals this season in all competitions. Yet the English champions’ over-reliance on him has led to criticism that they have become more predictable since his arrival from Borussia Dortmund last summer.
But his record in Europe could prove a game-changer in City’s pursuit of the biggest prize in club soccer.
Despite dominating the Premier League since being taken over by Abu Dhabi’s ruling family in 2008, the club has endured a succession of disappointments in the Champions League - reaching the final just once, losing to Chelsea in 2021.
Guardiola is still waiting to win the competition for the first time since lifting it twice with Barcelona - in 2009 and 2011.
The Catalan coach has also never won it without Messi, who was the talisman of his brilliant Barcelona team.
In Haaland, who scored his five goals in a 35-minute spell either side of halftime, he may have finally found an inspirational figure to emulate the Argentine maestro.
Guardiola said he did not know that the record was there to be taken.
For all the personal benchmarks reached by Haaland, of most importance to City is a place in the final eight.
Haaland opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the 22nd minute when Benjamin Henrichs was adjudged to have handled in the box after a video review.
He had his second and his 30th in the Champions League when heading in a rebound in the 24th after Kevin de Bruyne hit the bar.
His hat trick goal came in the the second minute of first-half stoppage time when bundling the ball over line after Ruben Dias hit the post with a header.
Ilkay Gundogan made it 4-0 just four minutes into the second half and Haaland scored two more in the 54th and 57th.
De Bruyne rounded off the scoring to make it 7-0 on the night with a curling shot into the top corner in time added on.
Guardiola has repeatedly claimed he does not feel added pressure to win the Champions League, but it will remain a blot on his City reign if he cannot deliver the title before walking away from the club.
Haaland could change all of that and perhaps even tempt Roberts to a City game on her next trip to the U.K.
Heroic defending and the woodwork helped Inter Milan reach the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time in more than a decade.
Inter managed a 0-0 draw at Porto
on Tuesday to progress 1-0 on aggregate and join city rival AC Milan in the final eight. Napoli could become the third Italian team in the quarterfinals when it plays Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday.
All the drama was saved for the fifth minute of stoppage time as a goalline clearance, the post and the crossbar prevented Porto from snatching the goal that would have taken the match to extra time.
There were few other concrete chances at the Estádio Do Dragão as Inter did enough to ensure it advanced to the final eight for the first time since going out at that stage as the defending champion in 2011.
Several Porto players dropped to the ground in tears at the final whistle.
There are no further restrictions on teams from the same country facing each other so the two Milan sides could be pitted against each other when the draw is made on Friday - just like they were in the semifinals in 2003, when eventual champion Milan emerged victorious.
Romelu Lukaku had scored the allimportant goal at San Siro but he started on the bench Tuesday as Inter coach Simone Inzaghi opted for Edin Džeko alongside Lautaro Martínez up front.
And Džeko had the best of the few Inter chances in the 22nd minute but his effort was saved by Porto goalkeeper Diogo Costa.
Porto could have already been in front by then as Inter goalkeeper André Onana got the slightest of touches to push Mateus Uribe’s swerving shot round the post in the third minute and also reacted well to smother a scuffed Stephen Eustáquio effort.
The Inter defense dealt well with the Porto pressure but almost got caught out on the counter midway through the second half but Matteo Darmian - who was suffering from a cramp and on a yellow card - rushed back to make a perfectly timed, last-ditch tackle.