Erling Haaland’s stats show his greatness even at 20

Erling Haaland managed to fire Borussia Dortmund into the quarter-finals of the 20-21 Champions League. The Black and Yellow club drew the second leg but won the fixture over the two meetings. 

The officiating caused Erling Haaland to score the second goal of the match after three attempts. The first was ruled out, and the subsequent check caused the on-field referee to check a foul against Haaland, resulting in the hosts being given a penalty. 

Haaland replaced Reus as the penalty taker due to him losing out on the goal he just scored. Bono saved the first attempt from Haaland, but the keeper stepped off his line to stop the shot. It hence had to be retaken, and the Norwegian made no mistake the second time around. 

The 20-year-old is now the youngest player in the sport’s history to have scored 20 Champions League goals. For the sake of comparison, it took the top scorers in the competition, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, 40 & 56 games to reach the same figure. On the other hand, Robert Lewandowski achieved the same feat in 36 games. Haaland took fourteen games across two seasons to do so. 

Stats show that Haaland scores every 52 minutes, and considering the form that he has been showing ever since bursting onto the scene with RB Salzburg, there seems to be no stopping him at all. While it is still very early in his career, he has all the tools to potentially go down as the best striker in the sport’s history.