Tall blonde in a gray boot – Sport – Kommersant

The next quarter-finalists of the Champions League were Manchester City and Inter. This became clear after the reigning champion of England, thanks to five goals from the Norwegian striker Erling Haaland, defeated German Leipzig 7-0 in the second leg of the first round of play-offs at home, and the Italian club achieved a goalless draw against Porto.

The balance of power before the return match of the second team of the current championship of England with the third team of the championship of Germany did not imply surprises. Manchester City looked like the clear favorite of this pair even according to the results of the draw, and after the British giant managed to take away a 1-1 draw from Leipzig three weeks ago, his chances of reaching the quarterfinals became even more significant. Leipzig is a solid German club. However, the wards of no less solid head coach Marco Rosa had to face a stellar team on a foreign field, in which Erling Haaland himself plays the role of the first violin, at the moment – the most effective striker in world football. And the fact that the tall, strong Norwegian looks more like not a violinist, but a hardened rocker in the prime of his creative powers, only aggravated the situation of the guests.

The hosts, as one might expect, started the meeting as actively as possible, and they managed to create the first dangerous moment already in the third minute. Kevin de Bruyne crossed from the right flank, Ilkay Gundogan took the ball tightly, but it flew over the gate. Soon Haaland made a high-speed break through the center and tried to push the ball past goalkeeper Janis Blaswich, but he did not blunder. Leipzig, in turn, tried to stretch the opponent’s goalkeeper Ederson with a cross from the left flank of David Raum, but it was just an episode, because soon it became very hot in the penalty area on the other half of the field after another corner in the penalty area of ​​the guests.

And then Manchester City gave out the result – although not without the help of referees. The fact is that in the 22nd minute, the Slovenian referee Slavko Vincic, with the filing of VAR, awarded a very controversial penalty to the Leipzig goal: the ball literally struck the arm of defender Benjamin Henriks, who, moreover, was with his back to the opponent who was striking. Penalty without a shadow of a doubt implemented Haaland. However, after a couple of minutes the guests could only complain about themselves. They failed to cope with the pressure, launched the attack unsuccessfully and missed a lightning-fast counterattack. De Bruyne, breaking through from outside the penalty area, hit the crossbar, and Haaland sent the ball with his head almost into an empty net. It became clear that the intrigue, which already looked hypothetical, finally evaporated. Further events were a pleasure only for the fans of Manchester City and fans personally of Haaland.

The logic of events hinted at a hat-trick, and it took place even before the break after Jack Grealish’s corner, Ruben Dias hit the post and a bad clearance from Leipzig midfielder Amadou Aidara, which hit the Norwegian leg. In the second half, the beating of the guests continued. Gundogan’s beautiful accurate shot was followed by two more goals from Haaland, who, as a hockey player, caught the courage in the finishing game and by the 57th minute became only the third player to score five goals in one Champions League match. (Earlier in 2012, Lionel Messi succeeded in the match between Barcelona and Bayer and in 2014, Shakhtar striker Luis Adriano in a meeting with the Belarusian BATE). Continuation from Haaland, however, did not follow, since head coach Pep Guardiola sent him to rest. But the most beautiful goal of the evening was yet to come. It was already in stoppage time that De Bruyne scored with a magnificent top-kick from the penalty line.

As a result – 7:0. That is, in this pair, as well as a week ago in the opposition of the London “Chelsea” with the Dortmund “Borussia”, the club from England again took over. As for the second meeting of the evening, “Porto” with “Inter”, in it the champion of Portugal at home could not print other people’s gates, and the Milanese went further, who had previously won 1-0 in their field.

Evgeny Fedyakov