Erling Haaland scored hattrick against Wolverhampton to beat Cristiano Ronaldo’s Record as City win 3-0.
For the fourth time in the Premier League this year, Erling Haaland scored a hat-trick, bringing his career total of goals to a significant milestone.
The Man City striker has dominated English football since joining from Borussia Dortmund in the summer, scoring more than one goal per game.
He scored a hat-trick once more against Wolves in City’s 20th game of the year.
The first, a header off a cross from Kevin De Bruyne, brought his season tally for league goals to 23, which would have already earned him a share of the Golden Boot in the previous three seasons.
In the 2019–20 season, Jamie Vardy reached that mark with Leicester, and Harry Kane followed suit the following year.
Heung-Min Son and Mohamed Salah tied for the most goals scored last season with 23 each.
Haaland has made progress toward that goal in almost half the period.
After the break, he converted a penalty to increase his total to 24 goals.
Riyad Mahrez intercepted Jose Sa’s pass out of the back and played in Haaland for an easy tap-in for his third goal.
He broke Cristiano Ronaldo’s previous record of three hat-tricks overall over two stints at Manchester United by scoring a hattrick, making it the fourth time this season that he has done so in the Premier League.
And this suggests that Salah’s record of 32 goals in a season of 38 games may be in jeopardy.
If Haaland maintains his current rate, the 34-goal Premier League season record, which was previously held by Andy Cole and Alan Shearer, could also be broken.
City looked to put pressure on Arsenal ahead of their matchup with Manchester United of which Arsenal won 3-2.
The goal against Wolves gave them a 1-0 lead at halftime.
Once Haaland added his second and then third goals, they had earned a 3-0 victory over Wolves and all three points.
Erling Haaland Against Wolves
A lightning-quick hat-trick was completed by the Norwegian in the 40th, 50th, and 54th minutes, propelling him even higher on the Premier League scoring lists.
The total is two goals higher than the 22 goals scored by Mohamed Salah, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and Sadio Mane back in 2018-19, as well as the 23 goals scored by Jamie Vardy in 2019–20, Harry Kane in 2020–21, and Mohamed Salah and Heung-min Son in 2021–22.
What Next for Haaland?
When City hosts league-leading Arsenal in the FA Cup fourth round on Saturday, the 22-year-old will be hoping to keep up his impressive goal-scoring record.
What It Meant For Guardiola And Man City
After going three games without scoring, Haaland’s record-breaking hat-trick, together with a goal against Tottenham, secures his spot back in the goals.
As Pep Guardiola’s team seeks to cut the distance between themselves and Arsenal to just two points, his goals allowed City to dominate Wolves.
