On this day: Haaland hits hat-trick on Champions League debut | OneFootball

On this day in 2019, Erling Haaland announced his arrival on the Champions League stage.

Whispers of Haaland’s prolific feats had started to spread around the football world, after the Norwegian had scored nine times against Honduras while representing Norway at the FIFA u-20 World Cup in the summer.

Fast forward to September, and the teenager was starting to shine on the senior stage. A breakout season at Red Bull Salzburg had started with three domestic hat-tricks, before a fourth followed on the big stage.

Haaland scored three first-half goals as Salzburg thrashed Genk in the Champions League group stage, becoming just the eighth player to score a hat-trick on their debut in the competition.

He later became the first teenager to score in five consecutive matches in the competition and has barely stopped scoring since. Transfers to Borussia Dortmund and Manchester City have now slowed down his goalscoring, which now stands at 49 goals in 48 Champions League appearances.

He’s already broken into the all-time top 10 goalscorers, and finished as the competition’s leading scorer in 2021/22 and 2022/23. The latter of those seasons saw Haaland help Manchester City to a maiden triumph, beating Inter Milan in the final.

Still just 25, how high will Haaland climb in the all-time scorers list?

Read – Champions League: Five youngsters to look out for this season

See more – The five favourites to win the 2025/26 Champions League

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