FIFTY-NINE IN FIFTY-NINE! Haaland's Champions League numbers no longer look human
Erling Haaland has reached the point where his stats read like a typo: 59 Champions League games, 59 Champions League goals.
Details: The Norwegian scored twice, in the 47th minute and deep in stoppage time, as Manchester City won 2-0 away at Porto in their league phase opener. The brace took him to exactly one goal per game in the competition across spells with Red Bull Salzburg, Borussia Dortmund and City, a rate no player in history has sustained.
Context makes the number even more absurd. Haaland already owns the records for fastest to 20, 30, 40 and 50 goals in the competition, stripping them one by one from Ruud van Nistelrooy, and at 26 he is hunting landmarks that took Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi twice as many games. Porto came into the night with a perfect start to their season and a defense that had barely blinked in Portugal, and still left the Dragao beaten by a man who treats Europe's elite like a training exercise. Under Enzo Maresca, City's attack looks as machine-like as ever, and its centerpiece keeps producing figures that belong in video games, not record books.
It's worth noting that Haaland's 59th goal also keeps him ahead of Mbappe's pace at the same age, with the Frenchman on 70 goals but from 99 appearances.
Reminder: Haaland reaches incredible milestone! Norwegian goal machine scores 300th club career goal.
Miguel Solomons
Dailysports's expert
