The statistic was confirmed: every time the Norwegian scores against RB, the latter loses.

There, he was downright crushed.

In the first leg, the Germans had managed to reach the break with a single goal difference then to equalize (1-1) but this time the English killed the match in 45 minutes.

From the first moments, they had been very incisive and a first charge from Haaland, launched by Nathan Aké, had ended with a pointed well repelled by Janis Blaswich, as a warning (11th).

If the usual Leipzig substitute goalkeeper also showed himself to his advantage against the colossus, repelling a powerful strike on his right (31st), he could not do anything against the determination displayed by his opponent who still has smashed a few records along the way.

Haaland first converted a generous penalty to open the scoring (1-0, 22nd).

At the kickoff, Haaland rushed to the pressing, causing the recovery of the ball.

He then asked for it again to set back Kevin de Bruyne and follow the Belgian's strike which shook the bar, to push it with his head into the empty goal (2-0, 24th).

It was already the Norwegian's 30th goal in C1 for his 25th match in the competition and at 22 years and 236 days, which makes him the earliest player to reach this bar in these two categories.

But the Haaland-show was far from over.

Sign that everything turned in his direction in this match, just before the break, he took advantage of a header from Rodri having touched the bar and rolled on the line to offer himself the hat-trick (3-0, 45 + 2) .

Manchester City's Norwegian striker Erling Haaland (C) scores his third goal against RB Leipzig in the Champions League Round of 16 second leg on March 14, 2023 in Manchester © Paul ELLIS / AFP

95 year old record broken

The break did not dull his appetite for goals and when he returned from the locker room, he added two goals to his tally by taking over balls badly repelled by the defense or the opposing goalkeeper (5-0, 53rd and 6-0, 57th ).

The name of Norwegian striker Erling Haaland appears on the Manchester City stadium scoreboard after his fifth goal in the Champions League Round of 16 second leg against RB Leipzig on March 14, 2023 in Manchester © Paul ELLIS / AFP

Meanwhile, Ilkay Gündogan had managed, with a nice cross shot, to worsen the score against the Germans who were already there (4-0, 49th) and De Bruyne crowned his excellent match with a marvel full skylight (7-0, 90 + 2).

But it is obviously the Norwegian's quintuplet - only the third in a C1 match - that everyone will remember.

There was almost half a second of disappointment from the Etihad spectators when he left, in the 63rd, when a sextuplet would have been unprecedented.

"Of course I would have liked to play more but there are other players", commented the main interested party at the microphone of Canal +, while referring to his "best match at this level".

With 33 goals in the competition, he already exceeds the total of players like Arjen Robben (31), Wayne Rooney (30), Samuel Eto'o (30) or Kaka (30), in the most prestigious of European competitions.

He also has 39 goals in 36 appearances for City and is already the most prolific goalscorer in a season in the club's history, beating a record dating back to 1928/1929 by a certain Tommy Johnson.

But despite these dizzying numbers, City and their Norwegian know that at the end of the season it is the trophies won that create the real memories and the Champions League, which has always eluded them until then, would be the best catch of all.

© 2023 AFP