UCL: Superhuman Haaland scores five in 35 minutes, lucky Inter head to the quarterfinals

Manchester City secured their place in the Champions League quarter-finals for the sixth season in a row after Erling Haaland’s five-goal haul inspired them to a 7-0 (8-1 agg) thrashing of RB Leipzig.

After a dominant start on the back of four straight competitive wins, City deservedly took the lead in the 22nd minute, when Haaland coolly converted from the spot after Benjamin Henrichs was penalised for handball in the box. Leipzig’s uphill task then got all the more difficult just two minutes later, as Kevin De Bruyne’s thunderous long-range effort crashed off the bar and straight to Haaland, who gleefully nodded home to strengthen the hosts’ grip on the tie.

With halftime approaching, City went in pursuit of another goal to put the match beyond doubt. The busy Janis Blaswich thought he’d done enough to prevent further damage to the scoreline, via a pair of superb saves to deny Erling Haaland and İlkay Gündoğan. But City’s Norwegian talisman bundled in a third with the final kick of the half to clinch his treble, giving the hosts an unassailable advantage and stamping their ticket to the quarter-finals.

With the Cityzens boasting a three-goal cushion, few would have criticised Pep Guardiola’s men for taking their foot off the gas. But that isn’t in City’s playbook when their much-proclaimed ‘cheat code’ is in such deadly form, and the hosts came firing out the blocks in the second half, adding a further three goals before the hour mark. The first of those saw Gündoğan finish a brilliant team move with a driven effort into the far corner.

Not to be upstaged by anyone, Haaland scored his fourth and fifth goals of the evening shortly after, with a pair of trademark predatory strikes inside the box. With one eye on his side’s FA Cup quarter-final clash with Burnley at the weekend, Pep Guardiola soon replaced Haaland, as City looked to ease through the final 20 minutes against a Leipzig team comfortably knocked out by the English champions of the day for a second time in three UCL campaigns.

Even without Haaland up front, City weren’t done yet, and imposed further suffering on their flattened visitors with almost the final kick. As the clock ticked past 90 minutes, the brilliant De Bruyne added late icing to the cake with a sensational long-range goal, as the blue half of Manchester extended their winning streak on home soil against German opponents across all UEFA competitions to 10 matches in truly merciless style.

Elsewhere, ten-man FC Porto were left frustrated and eliminated from the UEFA Champions League by a rock solid Inter Milan side as Nerazzurri reached their first quarter-final in the competition since 2011. Moment, or should we say moments, of the match came at very end when first Ivan Marcano's shot was blocked by Denzel Dumfries on goal line. Soon after, Mehdi Taremi caught the ball with his head but Andre Onana saved his shot with the help of the post. Finally, the pinball ended with Marko Grujić trying but only hitting the crossbar - a sequence which sent the full Estadio Dragao to tears.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE - LAST 16 ROUND

Second leg

07.03.

Chelsea - Dortmund 2-0 (1-0)

/Sterling 43, Havertz 53 pen/

Benfica - Brugge 5-1 (2-0)

/Rafa Silva 38, Ramos 45+2, 57, Joao Mario 71 pen, Neres 77 - Meijer 87/

08.03.

Tottenham - AC Milan 0-0

Bayern Munich - PSG 2-0 (0-0)

/Choupo-Moting 61, Gnabry 89/

Tuesday

Porto - Inter 0-0

Man.City - RB Leipzig 7-0 (2-0)

/Haaland 22 pen, 23, 45+2, 54, 57, Gundogan 49, De Bruyne 90+2/

Wednesday

23.00: (2.45) Real Madrid (3.95) Liverpool (2.80)

23.00: (1.50) Napoli (4.40) Eintr.Frankfurt (7.50)

***odds are subject to change***