Sometime shortly after midday Central European Time on Friday, a fearful groan may well be heard at Uefa headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
It will come from whoever is representing the unlucky club that ends up with their name paired next to Manchester City in the draw for the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
City have reached the last eight of club football’s most prestigious competition for the sixth year running, but seldom have they done so while setting down such a powerful message that in the competition that has been tantalisingly unwinnable so far, they really are ready to break their glass ceiling.
The 7-0 beating of RB Leipzig on Tuesday made an even more startling statement to rivals than the same scoreline they racked up against Schalke 04 to reach the quarter-finals in 2019. This time there is a sensational newcomer driving the push for Champions League glory and openly taking leadership of City’s highest ambitions.
Erling Haaland’s five goals matched the record for an individual in a single match in the competition, and he fired a clear warning that he wants more and more goals on these sorts of nights. When Haaland was substituted a little after an hour into the rout, he told City manager Pep Guardiola he had wanted to stay on to register a double hat-trick.
He already had what is known as a ‘perfect hat-trick’: a goal with the left foot, a goal with the right, a headed goal. Another header, like the one that put City 2-0 up, Haaland reacting sharpest when a Kevin de Bruyne shot came back off the Leipzig crossbar, would have made two of them.
The result resonated across Europe. “Who can stop the monster Haaland?” asked Wednesday’s edition of Portuguese sports newspaper Record. Benfica, who strolled into the quarter-finals with a 7-1 aggregate win over Brugge, will be hoping they are not asked to put their minds to that task.
Die Welt, the German daily, contemplated what it called “The Haaland Paradox”, the relatively low ratio of the Norwegian superstar’s touches of the ball – in a possession-based City side — to his extraordinary number of goals – 39 already in his 36 matches for the club he joined last July.
Bayern Munich, who have won eight out of eight Champions League matches this season, will be very pleased if they can avoid confronting that paradox in the next two months.
Leipzig, who had alarmed City with their second half display in the first leg, a 1-1 draw, were utterly steamrollered. If there must be some sympathy with their complaints about the penalty award that gave Haaland his first goal, by the time he had his third they were being thoroughly pulled apart, the confidence of the coveted young centre-back Josko Gvardiol visibly draining away. “We were eaten up out there,” said Benjamin Henrichs, the full-back. “It was brutal.”
Haaland described the City performance as “a kind of statement,” and explicitly took on responsibility for targeting the trophy that has eluded City, who lost in the semi-finals to Real Madrid last season, and were beaten by Chelsea in the final 12 months earlier.
“Of course the club want to win the Champions League,” he told CBS. “They have won the Premier League four times out of the last five, so they didn’t bring me in to win the Premier League. They know how to win that. You can read between the lines – I’m here to try to help the club develop more, to try to win the Champions League for the first time.”
“Having a weapon like Erling in this competition is important,” added Guardiola, “He’s an incredible guy with a huge talent, power and mentality, a serial winner.”
There was praise, too, for De Bruyne, who Guardiola had been lightly critical of in the lead-up to Leipzig’s visit for not focusing on the “simple” parts of his game. “Unstoppable,” said Guardiola of the midfielder. “This is the Kevin we know – the rhythm, his movement. We haven’t seen that so much this season.”
The rest of Europe will fear seeing more of it from here on. De Bruyne, even through his dips of form, has been Haaland’s most effective ally among City’s many creators, the suppliers of the passes Haaland envisaged himself capitalising on when, last year, he chose to move from Borussia Dortmund.
“I was thinking, last season, when they were crossing the ball in ‘I’d love to be there’,” recalled Haaland. “I knew I would score a lot of goals.”
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
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Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
more from Janine di Giovanni
Results:
First Test: New Zealand 30 British & Irish Lions 15
Second Test: New Zealand 21 British & Irish Lions 24
Third Test: New Zealand 15 British & Irish Lions 15
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 201hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 320Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.7L/100km
Price: Dh133,900
On sale: now
UAE v United States, T20 International Series
Both matches at ICC Academy, Dubai. Admission is free.
1st match: Friday, 2pm
2nd match: Saturday, 2pm
UAE squad: Mohammed Naveed (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Shaiman Anwar, Rameez Shahzad, Amjad Gul, CP Rizwan, Mohammed Boota, Abdul Shakoor, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Sultan Ahmed, Zahoor Khan, Amir Hayat
USA squad: Saurabh Netravalkar (captain), Jaskaran Malhotra, Elmore Hutchinson, Aaron Jones, Nosthush Kenjige, Ali Khan, Jannisar Khan, Xavier Marshall, Monank Patel, Timil Patel, Roy Silva, Jessy Singh, Steven Taylor, Hayden Walsh
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
What is a black hole?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
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Porsche Taycan Turbo specs
Engine: Two permanent-magnet synchronous AC motors
Transmission: two-speed
Power: 671hp
Torque: 1050Nm
Range: 450km
Price: Dh601,800
On sale: now
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Company%20profile
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Teams
Pakistan: Sarfraz Ahmed (captain), Mohammad Hafeez, Sahibzada Farhan, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usman Khan Shanwari, Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, Faheem Ashraf.
New Zealand: Kane Williamson (captain), Corey Anderson, Mark Chapman, Lockie Ferguson, Colin de Grandhomme, Adam Milne, Colin Munro, Ajaz Patel, Glenn Phillips, Seth Rance, Tim Seifert, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor.
Brief scoreline:
Liverpool 2
Keita 5', Firmino 26'
Porto 0
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Bharat
Director: Ali Abbas Zafar
Starring: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sunil Grover
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
It
Director: Andres Muschietti
Starring: Bill Skarsgard, Jaeden Lieberher, Sophia Lillis, Chosen Jacobs, Jeremy Ray Taylor
Three stars
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
PREMIER LEAGUE STATS
Romelu Lukaku's goalscoring statistics in the Premier League
Season/club/appearances (substitute)/goals
2011/12 Chelsea: 8(7) - 0
2012/13 West Brom (loan): 35(15) - 17
2013/14 Chelsea: 2(2) - 0
2013/14 Everton (loan): 31(2) - 15
2014/15 Everton: 36(4) - 10
2015/16 Everton: 37(1) - 18
2016/17 Everton: 37(1) - 25
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
