Before the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals on Tuesday (9:00 p.m.) against FC Bayern, many eyes are on Erling Haaland. Will the former BVB professional finally break his sinister curse against the German record champions with Manchester City?
38 competitive games, 44 goals: Erling Haaland’s quota in the Manchester City jersey is out of this world. The 22-year-old Norwegian has already scored ten goals in six appearances in the premier class in the light blue jersey – that’s enough, of course, for first place in the top scorer list ahead of Mo Salah from Liverpool FC (8) and Kylian Mbappé from Paris Saint-Germain (7).
In the FC Bayern camp, there is naturally a lot of respect for Haaland before the duel with ManCity in the last eight.
“For me, a pep team with Haaland is still a pep team. But with Erling they have an absolute weapon,” said Thomas Müller, who described the English champions as “the hammerless par excellence”.
Only defeats against FC Bayern in the BVB jersey
Haaland’s record against FC Bayern is bad at first glance: the 1.95-meter giant has met Bayern Munich seven times in his career in competitive games, each time in the shirt of his former club Borussia Dortmund. Haaland suffered seven defeats, five in the Bundesliga and two in the DFL Supercup.
Particularly bitter from the point of view of the goalgetter, who is used to success: it was not due to his personal achievements that he never managed to win against FC Bayern as a BVB professional.
He has given the Bundesliga industry leader a whopping five goals in direct duels so far.
Erling Haaland like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi?
His coach Pep Guardiola also hopes that Haaland will expand this statistic in the Champions League duels, but at the same time his losing streak against FC Bayern will finally end.
The Spaniard, who also wielded the scepter in Munich between 2013 and 2016, compared his goal machine after his gala in the 4-1 win against FC Southampton at the weekend with the two biggest players in the football industry in the recent past: Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel messi
“He’s only 22 years old, plays in the toughest league in the world and does extraordinary things. The pressure he’s under is high. Like the pressure Messi or Cristiano had,” said Guardiola about Haaland.