Erling Haaland feeling the pressure as Man City talisman addresses goal drought

There have been moments this season when Erling Haaland has dropped jaws, goals so spectacular that you had to watch them again to appreciate the power and athleticism.

There have been games when he has destroyed, rampaged and dented reputations leaving even opposition fans grudgingly appreciating that they had witnessed something special.

And there have been moments for the cameras, celebrations, tik-toks, fashion shoots, silk pyjamas, smiles, and moments of obvious joy on and off the pitch.

Yet as Erling Haaland stands on the pitch with Zadok the Priest echoing around the Ataturk Stadium in Istanbul tonight the inescapable feeling is all of the above has been mere warm-up.

What is required now is one special performance, the one City moved heaven and earth for. The stage is set fair and it’s time to deliver.

If Haaland has at times looked like a kid playing with his mates as he has racked up 52 goals in all competitions he admits that even  his massive shoulders are feeling it.

“Of course I feel pressure. I would lie if I said I didn’t,” he said. “You say it yourself and it’s true — they won the Premier League without me, they won every trophy without me. So I’m here to try to do a thing that the club has never done before and I’ll do my best.”

Asked what it would mean to get City over the line in a competition that has frustrated them for 11 years, he adds: “It would mean everything, of course.”

City will take comfort, as they lock Inter Milan in their sights, that nothing much has stopped Haaland this season.

A blank in the Community Shield as City lost to Liverpool saw suggestions he might take time to acclimatise yet it proved nothing more than a tease, a swish of the matador’s cape.

“It was one game, the Community Shield and I missed a couple of big chances. It can happen, it will happen again. What can you do? Nothing,” he shrugged.

“I told Jack Grealish sometimes players need maybe a year or something to come into the new league and new team and everything and sometimes players come directly in and perform! I told him this,” he added with a huge grin.  

“But we have to focus on the next thing, the next game and that’s what I did. I scored two goals, so it was still not a bad start.”

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Since that day there have been four league hat-tricks, a record 36 league goals and just one team, Chelsea, who he faced twice, failing to to stop him.

In the Champions League, a dozen in 10 games including a five-goal haul in a wrecking ball performance against RB Leipzig put him clear of Mo Salah with eight and Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior one further back.

It is an astonishing record yet Haaland says with a sincerity meant as compliment and half apology to teammates that the surprise to him is that he did not score more. 

“I didn’t expect to score this many goals but, again, I could have scored more. I’ve been missing a lot of chances, so I could have scored more. That’s the truth.”

Haaland arrives with just one goal in his last seven games and having failed to find the net in four since the middle of last month.

“You can think of it as one goal in seven games or 52 goals in 52 and eight assists, I think,” he said. “You can think of it in both ways. I’m not stressed. I feel really good.”

A goal drought? Possibly. But more likely a drumroll getting louder and louder as the match approaches.

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