Erling Haaland Scores His 45th Goal of the Season in Manchester City’s UEFA Champions League Win Over Bayern Munich Erling Haaland scored his 45th goal of the season on Tuesday.
The English champions, who made significant progress toward finally conquering Europe for the first time, also had goals from Rodri and Bernardo Silva.
Pep Guardiola’s first match:
Pep Guardiola’s first match against his former team since leaving Bayern for Manchester City in 2016 was a sweet victory, but he warned that the job is not yet done.
We need to do our game with a gigantic character. City also reached a partial settlement of a Champions League dispute with Bayern manager Thomas Tuchel, who defeated Pep Guardiola’s team to win the trophy in the 2021 final as Chelsea manager.
You might say, “That’s not Bayern,” but on the sidelines, I was very proud of us because we were brave and showed the right character.
For nights like this, City won the race to sign Haaland a year ago, beating out interest from Bayern and other European giants. The Norwegian player contributed with a clinical performance.
When Haaland had the first big chance of the game, his weak shot was straight at Yann Sommer, which was uncharacteristic of Haaland.
The city was thankful to Ruben Dias:
At the other end, City was thankful to Ruben Dias for a brilliant block that stopped Jamal Musiala from giving Bayern the lead.
The Spaniard then showed the forwards how to do it by curling a beautiful shot into the top corner at 27 minutes from long range with his weaker left foot.
After Manuel Neuer’s season was cut short by a skiing accident, Bayern took Sommer in the January window as a last-minute addition.
With a series of crucial saves to keep Bayern in the tie, including denying Ilkay Gundogan with an outstretched leg, the Swiss international demonstrated the value of that move.
However, Bayern was disappointed that they were unable to capitalize on their strong first half.
Before Matthijs de Ligt and Kingsley Coman had headers from close range blocked by desperate City defending, Leroy Sane twice came close to haunting his former club with powerful efforts that Ederson saved.
Instead, City blew it up in the fourth quarter to give Bavaria a lead that could be crucial next week.
Sommer then delivered a fine stop low to one side to turn Julian Alvarez’s shot to somewhere safe and secure.
However, Haaland turned John Stones’ knockdown past Sommer with a telescopic right leg to give City their third goal.
As City searched for a final flourish, Alvarez fired another effort just inches wide, and Sommer had to use his fingers to turn over Rodri’s header. However, if City is to avoid a third semifinal appearance in a row, Bayern will need to stage one of the greatest comebacks in Champions League history in eight days.