Borussia Dortmund sensation Erling Haaland says his match-winning performance against Sevilla on Wednesday was inspired by Paris Saint-Germain star Kylian Mbappe's hat-trick against Barcelona the previous night.
Dortmund came from behind to beat the hosts 3-2 in the first leg of the last-16 tie. After Sevilla forward Suso opened the scoring early in the game, Mahmoud Dahoud equalised for the visitors and Haaland followed up with a double before half-time.
Haaland now has eight goals from five matches in the Champions League this season, and 25 from 24 appearances in all competitions.
What has been said?
The 20-year-old made history with his stunning performance against the Spanish side and admitted that fellow young superstar Mbappe gave him the motivation to fire his team to victory.
He told CBS Sports : "I saw Mbappe yesterday and he scored some nice goals and I got a free boost from him! So yeah, it was nice."
Champions League form at odds with domestic struggles
While Dortmund are looking strong in the Champions League, they are going through a rough patch in the Bundesliga. They have won just one of their last six matches and are in danger of missing out on a top-four finish.
Haaland does not know why his side have been more convincing in European competition than in Germany, but hopes they can seal a victory against rivals Schalke when they meet on Saturday.
"I felt like, I don’t know if you can say it’s down to motivation or passion or whatever, but we were more online today. It was good," he told DAZN .
"It was not good to let in two goals, but it is good to score three away goals and take them with us.
"We had a good plan. Edin [Terzic] has been good and I’ve been talking a lot with him. He said today would be my game and that I would get my chances and I did, so it was an important win.
"We have to recover quickly now. We’ve got a big game ahead this weekend. We have to take this positive mindset into that game because we have to win that one as well, but it was really nice to win tonight in Spain."
Further reading
- Bellingham makes history with Champions League start
- Mbappe treble sets him up as Messi and Ronaldo heir
- We handed it to Porto on a silver platter, Pirlo fumes
