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Haaland nets 45th goal as Man City thrash Bayern

You are currently viewing Haaland nets 45th goal as Man City thrash Bayern
  • Post published:April 11, 2023

Erling Haaland netted his 45th goal of the season as Manchester City cruised to a comfortable 3-0 victory over Bayern Munich in their Champions League quarter-final at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday evening.

The English champions also scored goals from Rodri and Bernardo Silva, and they made a huge step towards finally taking over Europe for the first time.

In the 2021 final, Guardiola and City lost to Chelsea, whose manager was Thomas Tuchel.

But in 11 games against each other, Guardiola has only lost three times. In a big matchup between two of the favourites to win the competition, Guardiola beat his German counterpart.

Guardiola has been criticised for making too many changes to his team when it really counts in the knockout stages of the Champions League.

But it was Tuchel who picked a risky team, leaving Thomas Mueller and Sadio Mane on the bench. Joao Cancelo, who had been on loan at Bayern Munich in January, was also left on the bench.

City beat out Bayern and other big European teams to sign Erling Haaland a year ago so that nights like this could happen.

The 22-year-old did what was expected of him in the end, but he did something out of character when he had the first big chance of the game. His weak shot went straight to Yann Sommer, who saved it.

At the other end, Jamal Musiala could have put Bayern ahead, but a great block by Ruben Dias stopped him.

Then Rodri showed the forwards how to do it. The Spaniard took a shot from a long distance with his weaker left foot and curled it into the top corner.

After Manuel Neuer’s season was over because of a skiing accident, Bayern picked up Sommer in January as a last-minute fix.

The move to put the Swiss international in goal paid off when he made a number of key saves to keep Bayern in the game. He started by blocking Ilkay Gundogan’s shot with an outstretched leg.

Leroy Sane was also coming back to the Etihad after four years with City, and the Bayern winger came close three times before and after halftime to causing trouble for his old team.

Before halftime, Sane took a long shot that went wide, and early in the second half, Ederson made two big saves to keep him from scoring.

Matthijs de Ligt and Kingsley Coman both had close-range headers blocked by desperate City defenders after Bayern had a strong start to the second half.

Instead, City turned up the pressure in the last quarter to take a lead to Bavaria next week that could be decisive.

Haaland showed that he is good at more than just scoring goals when Silva headed in City’s second goal with a header 20 minutes from the end.

Julian Alvarez then took a shot, but Sommer made a great save low to his left to turn it away.

But City got their third goal, and Haaland got his, when the Norwegian used a telescopic leg to turn John Stones’ knockdown past Sommer.

As City looked for a final touch, Alvarez sent another shot just inches wide, and Sommer had to use the tips of his fingers to stop Rodri’s header.

But Bayern will have to pull off one of the best comebacks in Champions League history in eight days if they want to stop City from making it to a third straight semi-final.

Photo by EPA/PETER POWELL