Manchester, Sep 19 (IANS) Manchester City midfielder Phil Foden said that Erling Haaland’s goalscoring feats are unique after the Norwegian became the fastest player ever to score 50 Champions League goals in City’s 2-0 win over Napoli and added the Norwegian seems to break every record going forward.
After a goalless first half with the Italian champions at the Etihad Stadium, Haaland broke the deadlock shortly after half-time when flicking home a Foden scoop.
It means he’s reached a half century in European football’s premier competition in just 49 matches, surpassing Ruud van Nistelrooy who notched the same amount in 62 outings.
“He seems to break every record going. At his age as well, it’s unheard of what he’s done. I don’t think anyone’s going to break the records he’s going to break if he carries on playing the way he is,” Foden said on TNT Sports.
Haaland’s scoring rate of more than one per game is significantly better than anyone else in the top 50 scorers in European Cup history. 27 of his goals in the Champions League have come with City, while he netted 15 times for Borussia Dortmund and on eight occasions for Red Bull Salzburg before moving to the Etihad.
Following Haaland’s historic header, Jeremy Doku rubber-stamped the success with a well-taken goal with 25 minutes remaining. As City look to be crowned champions of Europe for the second time in their illustrious history, Foden believes the team made the ideal start to that pursuit.
“It’s the perfect start – a 2-0 win against a very tough opponent – obviously they went down to 10 men early which helped us. But they’re a nightmare team to break down and we’ve seen that today. The structure, how they stay so deep and they give you minimal spaces. It’s about playing the ball at the right time and breaking the lines. I thought we were pretty clever, we didn’t give too many turnovers away in silly areas and overall it was a solid performance,” Foden said.
–IANS
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