Erling Haaland tied the 38-game Premier League season scoring record with two strikes in Manchester City’s 3-1 win over Leicester on Saturday.
The Norway international now has 32 goals to his name after following up John Stones’ early screamer with two first-half goals of his own, and is now just two behind the division’s all-time scoring record co-held by Alan Shearer and Andy Cole, who both bagged 34 in a 42-game campaign.
It took City just five minutes to open the scoring, and the way they went about it wasn’t half bad, either. After some pinball from a corner, Stones crashed home a delightful half-volley from the edge of the box which landed perfectly in the top corner.
After a further eight minutes, the lead was doubled. VAR spotted a Wilfred Ndidi handball and gifted a penalty to Haaland, whose effort was about as perfect as they come to fizz past Daniel Iversen.
Leicester slowly started to get into the game but they were staring at a 3-0 scoreline 25 minutes in. Once again, Haaland was wheeling off in celebration after dinking over Iversen following a perfect Kevin De Bruyne through-ball.
The Foxes weren’t total bystanders, however, as the likes of James Maddison and Jamie Vardy had opportunities which may not even qualify as half-chances, but the gulf in quality between the two teams meant they were never getting back into this one.
With the game done and dusted, Pep Guardiola made two big changes during the interval, withdrawing both Stones and Haaland to keep them fresh.
Predictably, the tempo of the game dropped but Riyad Mahrez nearly injected some energy with an excellent curling effort from outside the box which drew an impressive save from Iversen.
Out of nowhere and with 15 minutes remaining, Leicester snatched one back through Kelechi Iheanacho, who poked into an open net after Harry Souttar’s header was palmed into his path by Ederson.
The stopper did redeem himself somewhat as he got down well to deny Maddison from close range, but Leicester were not disheartened and still had time to hit the post through Iheanacho before the full-time whistle.
GK: Ederson – 5/10 – Will have been desperate to make a save just to feel involved, but got it wrong and ended up gifting Iheanacho a consolation. A great save to deny Maddison later, however.
CB: John Stones – 7/10 – An absolute worldie of a goal in a sensational performance.
CB: Ruben Dias – 6/10 – Nice passing but didn’t really need to do much.
CB: Aymeric Laporte – 7/10 – Really intelligent movement…
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