Erling Haaland becomes youngest player to score 35 goals in UEFA Champions League
Apr 21, 2023
Manchester [United Kingdom], April 21 : Manchester City's goal-scoring machine Erling Haalang has achieved another milestone before his debut season in the Premier League ends.
Haaland is now the youngest player to score 35 goals in the UEFA Champions League history. He achieved this feat at the age of 22 years and 272 days old. Haaland edged past the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to register his name in this record.
The French sensation Kylian Mbappe holds the second position at the age of 23 years and 269 days old. Lionel Messi holds the third position, just a few days shy of Kylian Mbappe. Messi scored 35 goals in the Champions League at the age of 23 years and 307 years old.
This is not the only record that Haaland has broken in his debut season for Manchester City. Erling Haaland continued to shatter Premier League records against Leicester City, scoring twice in the first half to bring his league total for the year to 32 goals.
With his penalty against the Foxes in the 13th minute, Haaland established a new record for goals in a first-ever 38-game Premier League season.
With his 31st goal, the Manchester City striker has one more than Kevin Phillips, who scored 30 goals for Sunderland in 1999-2000.
Twelve minutes later, Haaland capitalized on a through-ball from Kevin De Bruyne to score his 32nd goal, tying Mohamed Salah of Liverpool's record-setting 38-game season.
In preparation for Wednesday's travel to Bayern Munich for the second leg of the UEFA Champions League, Pep Guardiola substituted Haaland at halftime. It prevented him from breaking Alan Shearer's Premier League record of five hat-tricks in a single season.
Haaland needs only two more goals to match the overall record of 34 goals in a season and three to break it. The record for most goals in a Premier League season is held by Andrew Cole and Alan Shearer, who scored 34 goals each in 1993/94 and 1994/95 seasons, which had 42 games per side.
The Golden Boot appears to be an afterthought for the Man City player this season.
