Borussia Dortmund’s lethal teenage striker Erling Haaland scored twice in eight minutes to lead them to a 2-1 win over Paris St Germain in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday.
The 19-year-old Norwegian, who joined in the last transfer window and has eight goals in five Bundesliga matches, stabbed in from close range after a quick-fire passing move in the 69th minute.
He then thundered home an unstoppable shot for his second goal in the 77th, two minutes after PSG’s Brazilian forward Neymar had levelled for the French champions.
And he displayed his athleticism and lightning quick pace time and again. After clearing a corner at his near-post in the first-half, the Dortmund wonderkid showed off his incredible speed as he surged down the middle to support a counter-attack, with stats later showing he ran 60 metres in a blistering 6.64 seconds.
To put that in perspective, that time would’ve been enough to see Haaland qualify for the US Indoor Championships 60m final, judging by the times recorded in 2018.
During the sprint, the teenager reached a top speed of 36kmph.
The world record is set at 6.34 seconds by Christian Coleman, who ran the time in Albuquerque in 2018.
Haaland, the first Dortmund player to score in his first league, German Cup and Champions League matches, has reached 10 goals in seven games in Europe’s elite competition this season, including eight for Salzburg in the group stage, faster than anyone.
He is only the second teenager to net 10 Champions League goals, after Kylian Mbappe, and is the first teenager to score 10 in a single campaign in the competition.
He is also the first player to score with two different teams in the same season in the competition.
And the teenager also became just the fifth man to reach 10 goals in his debut season in the Champions League, joining a list made up of Just Fontaine (10 in 1958-59), Claudio Sulser (11 in 1978-79), Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino (both 10 in 2017-18).
Haaland, the son of former Leeds and Manchester City defender Alf-Inge Haaland, will now look to finish the job at the Parc des Princes in three weeks, as PSG look to mount a comeback on March 11.
Possibly aware of that, Man-of-the-Match Haaland claimed he can do “a lot better”.
“I am glad about the man-of-the-match award, but feel like I still can do a lot better,” he said. “I have to play better at this level, have to work hard to improve.
“The result is quite a dangerous one, as PSG has a very strong team and can still go through in the return leg.”