By Victor Kanayo
Ace forward Erling Haaland took his goal tally to an incredible 19 in all competitions this season with another double in Manchester City’s 5-0 demolition of FC Copenhagen in the Champions League Group G game on Wednesday.
Haaland wasted no time in getting City going with yet another strike in his remarkable campaign, sweeping home an early opener, before putting the game beyond the Danish side inside 32 minutes.
City kept coming and added a third six minutes before the break as David Khocholava put through his own net, with Haaland lurking just behind in the hunt for his second treble in four days.
There was to be no hat-trick for Haaland as he was withdrawn at halftime, but the goals kept coming as Riyad Mahrez slotted home a penalty before Julian Alvarez finished things off with a late fifth.
The most comfortable of victories ensured City have taken a maximum nine points in the group and need two more to be sure of a spot in knockout stages.
Copenhagen are bottom on one point form three games.
Also, Juventus got off the mark in the Champions League with Wednesday’s 3-1 win over Maccabi Haifa powered by an inspired performance from Angel Di Maria.
Argentina winger Di Maria set up Adrien Rabiot’s brace and a further strike from Dusan Vlahovic to give Juve their first points in Group H.
They sit four points behind leaders Paris Saint-Germain and Benfica in the group and next week have a trip to Israel where they will again be favourites.
No Israeli team has ever won away in the Champions League and although Barak Bakhar’s team halved their deficit through substitute Din David with 15 minutes remaining and twice struck the post, they fell to their ninth straight defeat in the competition.
Similarly, revived Chelsea got their mojo back as they comfortably beat helpless AC Milan 3-0 at Stamford bridge.
At Santiago Benebau, Real Madrid expectedly but with so much stress defeated Shakhtar Donetsk, just Borussia Dortmund pounced and messed up Spanish La Liga side Sevilla in Spain 4-1.
Despite Lionel Messi’s early goal, Benfica still found ways to peg PSG to a 1-1 draw.
