Goal! Erling Haaland scores three, puts Man City ahead 3-0 on their way to a convincing Champions League semi-final victory!

Erling Haaland is Pep Guardiola's unsolvable Man City problem and their best chance of beating Real Madrid originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here . Erling Haaland has scored 153 goals in 187 appearances for Manchester City , placing him joint-fourth on their historic scoring charts alongside club legend Colin Bell.

If the Norway superstar sees out his gargantuan contract that runs until the end of June 2034, he will overhaul the club record of 260 set by Sergio Aguero with something to spare. Haaland has won two Premier League titles, scooping the Golden Boot in both of those seasons. He was also the top scorer in the UEFA Champions League in 2022/23, which City won for the first time as part of a treble.

That year, he also broke the Premier League single-season scoring record and, in December 2025, became the fastest player to 100 goals in the competition's history. He is on course for a third Premier League Golden Boot in four years. In all competitions, he has 11 City hat-tricks.

It's worth highlighting all of this at the top of an article like this as full disclosure. Any criticism can feel Monty Python-esque: "But apart from that, what has Erling Haaland ever done for Manchester City? " If Pep Guardiola's side have any chance of overturning their 3-0 Champions League deficit at home to Real Madrid on Tuesday night, it has plenty to do with having a truly generational goalscoring talent in their ranks.