Haaland Silences Ferdinand’s Mockery with Impressive Performance, Earns Humbling Ovation”

Haaland Silences Ferdinand’s Mockery with Impressive Performance, Earns Humbling Ovation”

During the pre-match build-up, Rio Ferdinand made fun of Manchester City’s lights show, but by the time the game reached the hour mark, he was applauding Erling Haaland. Haaland’s incredible performance led Manchester City to a 7-0 victory over Leipzig in the Champions League quarter-finals. Haaland scored five goals, making him the third player in Champions League history to achieve this feat, and was substituted by Pep Guardiola with about half an hour remaining. Although he missed the opportunity to complete a double hat-trick, Haaland received a standing ovation from Rio Ferdinand in the BT Sport studio, which was arguably an even greater honor. The game was evenly poised after a 1-1 draw at the Red Bull Arena, but Haaland’s ruthless brilliance destroyed Leipzig and secured Manchester City’s place in the quarter-finals. Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin de Bruyne also contributed goals in the second half.

Even clapped off by a United legend. What a player. What a performance. 👏 pic.twitter.com/Dpuf9rL1m0

— Jake Humphrey (@mrjakehumphrey) March 14, 2023

It represented a slight change of tack from Ferdinand, who mocked Manchester City for their light show before the game.

“We don’t need stuff like this at Old Trafford,” he said in a video posted to his Twitter account.

“We don’t need all these lights. We don’t need these lights. We don’t need these lights at Old Trafford.

“For real, at Man Utd we don’t need these light shows.”

Fellow pundit Joleon Lescott was on hand to deliver a necessary retort: “Yeah, well these are Champions League lights. Europa League don’t need these lights.”

The 22-year-old added: “I love this competition, as everybody knows. Five goals. To win 7-0 at home. I’m so happy.

“A lot of goals today, I didn’t think. I was just doing it. On the penalty, I was just trying to get the ball into the back of the net. Same with the second goal. Same with the third goal. Same with every goal. I didn’t think on every single goal.

“So I think a lot of it is just being quick in the mind and to do the right thing and try to put it where the keeper is not. A little bit of it, of course, is quality, but a lot of it is in the head.”

On Guardiola taking him off in the 63rd minute on five goals, Haaland said: “I told him when I went off, ‘I would love to score a double hat-trick!’. But what can we do? We have to go off.”

Haaland Silences Ferdinand’s Mockery with Impressive Performance, Earns Humbling Ovation”