Piers Morgan praises Erling Haaland’s mentality after striker wasn’t satisfied with five goals

Piers Morgan praised Erling Haaland’s winning mentality after the striker wasn’t satisfied despite scoring five goals for Manchester City against RB Leipzig.

Haaland was only on the pitch for 63 minutes but managed to find the net five times as City secured a 7-0 win at the Etihad Stadium and won 8-1 on aggregate to comfortably progress to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

After the game Haaland was widely praised, but the 22-year-old was eager to emphasise that he could have scored even more goals.  

Haaland said on BT Sport: ‘In the first half I could have scored more. I had alone with the goalkeeper, I had the rebound with Gundo (Ilkay Gundogan), I thought he was going to play the ball, that’s why I went a bit more. 

‘If I dropped down two metres I would have scored because he shot at the keeper, so I could have had two more goals in the first half. 

‘There were also crosses from Kevin (De Bruyne) I could have been at. Maybe someone if they scored five goals would be happy, you have to be happy but you have to want more of course.’ 

Haaland’s comments certainly impressed Morgan, who praised the fact that Haaland is self-critical. 

Morgan wrote on Twitter: ‘The most terrifying thing about @ErlingHaaland is that he’s genuinely p*ssed off he didn’t score more than 5 goals last night, and very self-critical of missing other chances. Just a stunning winner’s mentality.’

It has been a remarkable first season at City for Haaland, who has scored 39 goals in 36 matches across all competitions.

Haaland will hope that his goals will help fire City to silverware, especially as they look to win the Champions League for the first time in their history.

Despite scoring five goals, Haaland was adamant that he could have had more against Leipzig

Morgan was impressed by the fact that Haaland was self-critical despite his goals

City are five points adrift of leaders Arsenal in the Premier League, while they will host Burnley on Saturday in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.

Haaland’s excellent positioning and clinical nature in front of goal have made him such an asset to City.

Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne were also on target against Leipzig as City prevailed.

With the first of his five goals against Leipzig Haaland broke Kylian Mbappe’s record to become the youngest player to score 30 goals in the history of the Champions League.

Rio Ferdinand described Haaland’s prowess in front of goal as ‘astonishing’. 

So far in his first season at City, Haaland has scored a remarkable 39 goals in 36 matches

Speaking on BT Sport, Ferdinand said: ‘What Haaland is doing in football right now is astonishing.

‘When he’s playing like this in the team, they are absolutely dominant. He gives the feeling as long as everyone else is a 7/10 and he’s here “we win”.

‘He brings a superpower to the team and this is already a supercharged team with exceptional talent, and there’s a hunger and desire in his play above everything else.

‘Scandalously I’ve heard people say he (negatively) impacts the way this team plays. 39 goals in the season… he only makes this team better.’