Erling Haaland should finally shoot Manchester City to the Champions League title. But in the round of 16 against RB Leipzig, the striker, who suddenly stopped scoring, became strangers. Has Guardiola gambled or is the twilight of the gods coming?
It’s that 68th minute, that one small chance that means so much. Which symbolizes so many things. Which may even describe the fall of a god. Suddenly, almost out of nowhere, a deep ball hits Erling Haaland’s barrel (pre-warning: there aren’t many of those that evening in front of 45,228 fans in Leipzig). The star striker from Manchester City easily shakes off Josko Gvardiol in a running duel and, in his incomparably explosive manner, stabs into the penalty area with mighty strides. But from the inside right position, the Norwegian clearly misses the far post.
What would have meant an almost logical goal for BVB and in the past few months for the Skyblues is just a miserable shot in the 1-1 draw between RB Leipzig and the Citizens in the first leg of the round of 16 in the Champions League. This evening? Oh, that’s how it’s been going on in Manchester for weeks. Haaland has now scored just one goal in his last six games. Such a mediocre statistic is actually an impossibility in the goalscoring life of the miracle talent.
But yes, Haaland is human. Or better wrapped in the mythology of his homeland: The evening in Leipzig shows that the Norwegians in the second half of the season more and more of the thunder god Thor, who inspires the opponent with all his power and strength every day and out of respect, fear and terror , degenerates into shapeshifter Loki. Sometimes he’s there, sometimes not. These days you really don’t know what performance you’re going to see. Where it used to be clear that Haaland was always good for one or two goals, he can be kept in check in Manchester City’s system.
“Of course, more could have come from Haaland,” explains coach Pep Guardiola after the game, but he’s not worried that the top scorer will score again anytime soon. “We didn’t allow much of him,” says RB attacker Emil Forsberg. “We defended him well so everything is still open in the second leg.” Revered as Thor once was, the no longer so accurate striker on the island is no longer worshiped by everyone. Loki-Haaland, like the always unpopular shapeshifter of mythology, even has to take a lot of criticism, but more on that later.
Directly in return for this damned 68th minute, Leipzig equalizes. After a corner, Gvardiol climbs the highest, leaning against Ruben Dias just enough so that the whistle is not blown and nods off. “Leipzig’s on fire”, sing the fans and dance. Guardiola watches while crouching on the sidelines, jumps up, spits out briefly – and can’t believe it. At this point, the goal is anything but undeserved.
After a first half that almost bordered on the absurd in terms of one-sidedness and with a city ball possession of 80 percent at times, RB turned up the heat in the second half. Substitute Benjamin Henrichs has the first chance with a header in the 53rd minute, but the ball flies just over the goal. Just two minutes later, left alone from twelve meters, he miserably missed a much greater opportunity. With his right he pushes the ball past the far post and then says: “I have to get the ball on goal. That’s extremely bitter.”
Timo Werner also got better in the second half, fueled up quickly on the outside left shortly after the big chance and goalkeeper Ederson was able to clear his sharp cross just before Forsberg. In the 63rd minute, André Silva dribbled his way through to Ederson in the penalty area, but lobbed the chance too carelessly. Then Gvardiol turned the game of the first half upside down with his header.
In those dominant first 45 minutes, however, it becomes apparent what the fall of the god Thor entails for Guardiola and his team for bitter news. Haaland is still jogging confidently, broad-shouldered and -legged as ever to warm up on the pitch. Like a berserker, a Viking, like a Norse deity. After all, Leipzig is something of his favorite opponent, for BVB he scored three braces against RB. But then everything changes. Haaland does not take part in the game at all, finds zero access. Is searched here and there, but almost never found. At the end of the first half there are zero shots on goal, a measly seven touches of the ball. Thor becomes Loki, who no longer bursts with strength, but transforms his form into an all-world striker.
The Skyblues’ game is specially tailored to Haaland and its strengths. That seems to be the problem. In the 18th century, Loki was even credited with playing the role of the devil. They haven’t got that far in England yet, and yet the Norwegian is becoming more and more controversial despite his goal records. Experts (Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher with a little more expertise, Dietmar Hamann with a little less) criticize that the Citizens would have been a better team last year. This is because Haaland was playing at BVB at the time, and Guardiola’s star team wouldn’t have been completely focused on one striker. According to the observers, City are playing too predictably today. Striker icon Thierry Henry criticized the fact that the youngsters always run the same way. As proof of this, even the weak RB Leipzig in the first half always intercepted passes in depth to Haaland and always got a leg in the way of passes to the back of the defense.
Despite the striker’s 26 goals in 23 league games (more than England’s top scorers in 16 of 30 Premier League seasons), it’s said his side are underperforming. Because don’t hit Haaland if he’s useless due to his playing style (can’t fall into midfield or onto the outside). And City was massively weakened. In nine of the eleven competitive games that Manchester could not win, the Norwegian was not involved in a goal. In the bitter bankruptcy in the city derby against United in January, he only collected 19 ball contacts. At the beginning of February, against Tottenham, he even had zero ball contacts in the penalty area and just as few shots on goal. And now Leipzig. The critics should see themselves confirmed once again.
The Citizens not only failed in Saxony, they are limping as badly this season as they have not been for a long time and have a total of eight points fewer in the league than at the time last year. Even after the 3-1 win over Arsenal FC a week ago, including a brief assertion at the top of the table in the Premier League, the champions failed immediately afterwards at Nottingham Forest. City has to go far in the Champions League this year to please the fans, precisely because the championship could soon be gone and because the club is currently being shaken up by the financial scandal. The best thing is the really big title. The one Guardiola has been working toward for years. But it seems almost unattainable for the club.
That’s why the Skyblues signed Erling Haaland, the Thor. Actually. The 22-year-old should make the difference in the important games with his magical power and accuracy. Should the team finally heave to the top of Europe. Should be able to do what Guardiola’s well-oiled quick pass machine without a real center forward and despite Kevin De Bruyne, Gündogan, Gabriel Jesus, Sergio Agüero and whatever the offensive rockets were called over the past few years, simply did not want to succeed. After all, the club that had the most successful striker in its own ranks often won the pot.
But Haaland not only scored one goal in the five league games against “Big Six Clubs”, he can’t do anything in his first knockout game in the premier class for Manchester either. The 1-0 of his team in Leipzig falls without his participation (27th). Xaver Schlager makes a catastrophic bad pass deep in his own half, Jack Grealish quickly plays a pass to ?lkay Gündo?an, but it rolls through friend and foe alike. Rihad Mahrez easily jogs past, the ball tumbles in front of his feet and he shoves an ice-cold shot into the bottom right corner of the goal. After all, Haaland is right in the middle of the cheering grapes.
Calm and dominant is what City is playing here. Intoxicating but by no means. No breathtaking ball relays, no chances every minute. In the second half they are even close to falling behind. If he advances, that should pose big problems for him in the next knockout rounds: Stronger teams will act offensively much more dangerously than RB and punish Manchester for their low penetration and too easy calculability – for Thor’s transformation into Loki.
But then be careful in the Red Bull Arena: Haaland still touches the ball. He skilfully lifts the ball, he has a fine foot in addition to his athleticism. It’s just stupid that referee Serdar Gözübüyük blew the whistle a second earlier. Haaland puts the ball in his hands with the kick. As if he missed him. Not to mention hits.
That’s how far it has come for the striker, who broke goal record after goal record as the god of thunder Thor. If Erling Haaland flies out of the Champions League early in his first season with Manchester City, his critics will become louder and louder. But there is also good news for the 22-year-old: football is fast-moving, a few goals can soon change everything again and make Loki forget.
In Norse mythology, a more beautiful world emerges from the fall of the gods. This is called the “Twilight of the Gods”. And in the next 68th minute he puts it back in.
