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Haaland scores 5 as Man City crush Leipzig; Inter throttle Porto

Sports Desk, Mar 14 (EFE).- Erling Haaland had five goals Tuesday to lead Manchester City 7-0 over RB Leipzig in the second leg of their Champions League round of 16 clash for a 8-1 triumph on aggregate, while Inter Milan held Porto 0-0 to advance on the strength of their goal in the first leg.

Pep Guardiola’s men are through to the quarterfinals for the sixth straight year, but Inter last reached the last eight in 2011 and this is the first time since 2005-2006 that both Milan clubs have made it past the knockout stages.

Haaland became the third man in Champions League history to score five goals in a game, following Lionel Messi – for Barcelona against Bayer Leverkusen in March 2012 – and Luiz Adriano, who put up five for Shakhtar Donetsk in a October 2014 rout of BATE Borisov.

And with his 39th goal in all competitions since joining City last summer, the Norwegian set the new club single-season scoring record.

The hosts dominated from the opening whistle at the Etihad and Ilkay Gündogan squandered a tremendous chance in the 3rd minute before Haaland forced a stop from Leipzig goalkeeper Janis Blaswich in the 11th.

A subsequent mistake by Blaswich set off a wild scramble in front of goal that Leipzig appeared to survive until VAR told the referee to look at the monitor.

The intervention resulted in a penalty for City over a hand ball by defender Benjamin Henrichs. Haaland converted for the 1-0 and doubled the lead two minutes later, heading in from close range after Kevin de Bruyne’s shot hit the cross-bar.

Blaswich made good saves against Haaland and Gündogan before the Norwegian completed the hat trick in first-half stoppage time.

With the tie settled, the hosts could have taken their foot off the gas in the second half, instead Gündogan scored in the 49th minute and Haaland scored two more in the space of four minutes to put City up 6-0 on the night and 6-1 overall with more than 30 minutes left in regulation.

Six minutes after his fifth goal, Haaland came off to a standing ovation, making way for Julian Alvarez. De Bruyne scored in the 92nd minute to deepen Leipzig’s misery.

In Porto, Inter conceded 68 possession to the home side and were outshot 21-11, but the Nerazzurri kept a clean sheet to make Romelu Lukaku’s lone goal in the first leg stand up.

Visiting keeper Andre Onana had to make only three saves, though he got crucial assistance from defender Federico Dimarco, who blocked a strike from Evanilson late in the first half.

Porto, who went down to 10 men at the end of regulation with Pepe Aquino’s expulsion for a second yellow card, nearly pushed the tie into extra-time with a flurry of attacks in stoppage time, when both Mehdi Taremi and Marko Grujic came close to getting the equalizer.

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