Erling Haaland on Man City motivation: I've won everything at 23 - now I have taste for it

Norwegian striker goes into Champions League last-16 second-leg against Copenhagen looking for a repeat of last season's success

Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's final goal in their 3-1 Premier League win over Manchester United at Etihad Stadium on March 3, 2024. Getty Images

Erling Haaland has described how winning the treble in his first season at Manchester City has given him “the taste” to do the same this time round.

The reigning European champions take a 3-1 advantage into Wednesday's Champions League last-16 second leg against FC Copenhagen at the Etihad Stadium thanks to goals from Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden in Denmark.

Foden was on target twice in Sunday's Premier League derby win over Manchester United that kept City one point behind leaders Liverpool – with the two top clubs facing-off on Sunday.

Pep Guardiola's side are also still going strong in the FA Cup where they take on Newcastle United at home for a place in the semi-finals.

It means City remain on course for a repeat of last season's treble, which saw them become European Cup winners for the first time.

And Haaland, who scored the final goal in the 3-1 comeback win over United, says all that success has only increased his appetite for more silverware.

“You can think about it in two ways,” said the Norwegian, who is joint top-scorer in this year's Champions League with five goals.

“One thing, I came here and won it all, and the other thing, I'm 23 years old and I won everything and I got the taste of it, how it is to win everything.

“How I work is that when I feel this is, I want to win it again. Easy as that.”

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Haaland has scored a remarkable 80 goals in 84 appearances since joining in the summer of 2022 and is contracted to City until 2027.

And while the Norwegian refused to answer questions on whether he might sign a new longer-term deal at the club, saying his focus is “on the pitch”, he made it clear he was enjoying life in Manchester.

“I’m really happy, especially with the people that I’m surrounded with; the manager, the directors, the board, they are a group of amazing people and I’m really happy, I have to say,” he said.

“If I say this now it’s probably gonna be a massive headline: tomorrow you never know what the future brings, but I’m happy. You can write this but you also have to write everything I said before. I’m happy.

“My focus mainly now is on the pitch, there's a lot of games. Two days ago was the Manchester derby, now Champions League. Sunday is Liverpool. I think I should focus on that. I don't think I should focus on anything else at the moment.”

Haaland is once again leading the race to win the Premier League Golden Boot for a second season running with 18 goals, although he did produce one of the misses of the season in the first half on Sunday.

The big striker managed to volley over from only a couple of metres out with the goal at his mercy, much to the amazement of everyone in the Etihad Stadium.

“People say I'm good at scoring goals but I missed the biggest chance in the world ever a couple of days ago,” said the former Borussia Dortmund attacker.

“Yes, I've been missing, I missed a lot of chances. I will still keep on missing chances, but I will still keep on scoring goals.

“I'll probably miss a big chance in the future as well, and people are going to criticise me, but what can I do then? Should I think of that? No, just focus on scoring more goals and to help the team.”

Haaland admitted when he was younger such a miss would have bothered him a lot but now he has learnt to bounce back from disappointments.

“It's been a challenge for me,” he said. “I remember when I was young I would start crying if we lost and I missed a lot of chances.

“I've been working on it a lot and in the end everything is in here [tapping head].”