(Football news) Manchester City defeated RB Leipzig 7-0 at the Etihad Stadium to secure a 8-1 aggregate win. Pep Guardiola played a 4-2-3-1 formation with Riyad Mahrez, Phil Foden, Kyle Walker and Aymeric Laporte on the bench. It was total destruction by Manchester City as led by Erling Haaland. The Norwegian scored a first half hat-trick before scoring another 2 goals in the 2nd half. He became the third player to score 5 goals in a UCL match and he could’ve easily scored 6 but Pep Guardiola took him off. Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne scored the other 2 goals as Leipzig were left helpless. 

In recent times Haaland has been the victim of a lot of criticism from experts and fans. A lot of people are of the opinion that City were better without Haaland as they had goals coming from more sources. The striker has been proving it wrong for quite a while now as he has already broken the record for most goals in a single season for Manchester City.

It usually takes players some time to settle into a new league and a new team but Haaland has taken no time. The fact that he still has room to grow is scary for the other teams and he promises to be better in the coming years. He already has 30 goals in 25 Champions League appearances and that too at the age of just 22.

When a game ends 7-0, the losing side isn’t counted as unlucky but that might be the case. The opening goal was scored from the penalty spot and the spot kick was awarded after a controversial handball. Minutes later Ederson looked to have fouled Timo Werner way outside the box but the referee didn’t give a free-kick. It could have potentially been a red card as well but that is when it started going wrong for Leipzig. Manchester City have cruised into the Champions League quarter finals once again. This year they will be looking to finally get their hand on the Champions League and with Erling Haaland up front that is a realistic possibility.

Also read: Atletico Madrid win 1-0 thanks to Alvaro Morata’s last minute winner