Haaland thanks Mbappe for providing Champions League ´motivation´

Erling Haaland thanked Paris Saint-Germain’s hat-trick hero Kylian Mbappe for inspiring the Borussia Dortmund forward to score a double in Wednesday’s Champions League win against Sevilla.

Haaland cannot stop scoring in Europe’s premier club competition, netting a first-half brace in Dortmund’s 3-2 away victory in the opening leg of the last-16 tie, and taking his Champions League tally to 18 goals in 13 games.

The 20-year-old has scored 41 goals in 42 games since joining the German outfit from Austrian club Salzburg in 2019, and he continues to turn heads across Europe with his prolific scoring form amid links to the likes of Real Madrid and Manchester City.

After watching Mbappe decimate Barcelona during PSG’s 4-1 win at Camp Nou on Tuesday, Haaland used the French star’s scintillating performance as motivation to get his own scoring boots on.

pic.twitter.com/5SZIr7nnwh

— Erling Haaland (@ErlingHaaland) February 18, 2021

“It was good to score goals. I love the Champions League and when I saw [Kylian] Mbbape score the hat-trick yesterday I got free motivation so thanks to him,” Haaland said.

“I saw Mbappe yesterday and he scored some nice goals and I got a free boost from him.”

In scoring his 10th Champions League goal in seven appearances for Dortmund, Haaland reached the milestone quicker than any other player in competition history, beating Roy Makaay’s record of 10 goals in 10 games for Bayern Munich in 2003-04.

Haaland also becomes only the fifth player to notch a brace in three straight Champions League games, joining the company of Filippo Inzaghi, Giovane Elber, Robert Lewandowski and Cristiano Ronaldo – the latter has achieved the feat on three occasions.

No player has scored more Champions League goals than Haaland since the start of last season’s competition, with Bayern forward Lewandowski equalling his 18-goal tally.

After 13 career games in the competition, Haaland has 10 more goals than the next highest scorers – Raul and Karim Benzema with eight. Lionel Messi had scored three goals after 13 games, while Ronaldo had none.

While Haaland is scoring goals and setting records, the Norway international has no intention of slowing down when Dortmund host the Spanish outfit in the second leg on March 10.

“We have three away goals and that’s quite important,” he added. “We have to attack the game at home against Sevilla and we have to keep going.”

10 – Erling Haaland has scored 10 Champions League goals in just seven appearances for Borussia Dortmund, the quickest a player has ever reached 10 goals for a team in the competition, breaking Roy Makaay’s record with Bayern Munich (10 games, between 2003 – 2004). Machine. pic.twitter.com/quQJearNfh

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 17, 2021