Erling Haaland fastest to 30 Champions League goals - here are some other milestones

Manchester City striker continues to shatter goal records

Manchester City's Norwegian striker Erling Haaland scored five goals in the 7-0 rout of RB Leipzig. AFP

Erling Haaland's record-breaking season reached new heights on Tuesday as the Norwegian striker scored five goals in Manchester City's 7-0 Champions League thrashing of RB Leipzig.

In the process, Haaland became both the youngest player to pass 30 goals in Europe's premier club competition as well as the fastest.

Here is a look at some of the City striker's goalscoring milestones:

Fastest to 30

Haaland's quintet of strikes in Tuesday's last-16 second leg saw him beat Ruud van Nistelrooy's previous mark of 30 goals in 34 matches. Haaland, who now has 32 goals in the competition, reached that mark in just 25 appearances.

At 22 years, 236 days old Haaland is 116 days younger than Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappe was when he scored his 30th goal in the Champions League.

High five

His tally of five against Leipzig equalled the record for the most goals in a Champions League game, alongside Lionel Messi for Barcelona against Bayer Leverkusen in 2012, and Luiz Adriano for Shakhtar Donetsk against BATE Borisov in 2014.

Most City goals in a season

Since joining City from Borussia Dortmund last summer Haaland has, at the time of publishing, amassed 39 goals in 36 games.

In doing so he broke Tommy Johnson's 94-year record for most goals for City in a single season. It's only March, and Haaland shows no signs of slowing down as City chase a treble of Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup.

Fastest to 20

Haaland already held the record for the fastest (and youngest) player to score 20 Champions League goals.

His two goals for Borussia Dortmund in their 2-2 draw against Sevilla on March 9, 2021 came when the fledgling striker was a mere 20 years, 231 days old.

The Norwegian reached the milestone in only 14 games, beating the previous best, held by Tottenham's Harry Kane, by 10 games.

At the time Haaland was more than a year younger than Kylian Mbappe when he reached that mark.

Fastest to 15

Haaland's brace in Borussia Dortmund's 3–0 win over Club Brugge on November 24, 2021 made him the fastest player to record 15 Champions League goals; he had reached this benchmark in 12 games.

Awesome arrival

The Norway striker was only 19 when he became the first and so far only player to score a first-half hat-trick on his Champions League debut, playing for Austrian side RB Salzburg, in a 6-2 win against Genk on September 17, 2019.

Haaland netted in Salzburg's next two Champions League group games that season (one against Liverpool, two against Napoli). His six goals were also the most scored by any player in their first three Champions League matches.

Hat-trick hero

After sealing a €60 million move to Manchester City last summer, on October 2, 2021, Haaland became the first player in Premier League history to score a hat-trick in three successive home games in City's 6–3 win against Manchester United, in which he also got two assists.

He also became the quickest player in Premier League history to score three hat-tricks, doing so in eight league games and beating the previous record of 48 league games, set by Michael Owen in 1998.

Haaland's two goals in a 3-1 away win over Leeds United on December 28 took him to 20 Premier League goals in only 14 matches, beating the previous mark held by Sunderland's Kevin Phillips by seven appearances.

Hard on Honduras

Haaland put Honduras to the sword in an Under 20 World Cup match in Poland on May 30, 2019, scoring nine of Norway's 12 goals. It was Honduras' heaviest defeat, Norway's biggest win and, by some distance, the most goals scored by a single player in a match in tournament history.