As Erling Haaland’s Manchester City teammate Bernardo Silva lauded the forward’s mentality, comparisons to Cristiano Ronaldo were made.
With 32 goals already to his name in just 28 league outings, the record-breaking Norwegian is on track to smash the 34-goal Premier League golden boot mark held by Andy Cole (1993–94) and Alan Shearer (1994–95). Haaland has scored 48 goals from 42 games this season in all competitions, closing close on Ronaldo’s career-high of 61 goals in a single season (in 2014–15). Additionally, Bernardo, a player for both club and nation, pointed out additional similarities between the two.
“The goal figures, it’s unbelievable; it’s Cristiano and [Lionel] Messi level, that amount of goals,” the Portugal midfielder said. “Hopefully Erling can keep going that way because we need his goals until the last game of the season. He has definitely got the same mentality as Cristiano, always wanting to be in the box, always wanting to score. He doesn’t care if he touches the ball one or two times, when he touches he scores. He’s just a proper striker.
“We knew what Erling could do before he arrived because he’s been doing that for a few years before he joined us, in Norway, Austria and Germany. We watched him and we played against him, but you never know when he comes here, what level he can get to. But what he’s done so far this season has been amazing and we are really happy to have him with us. He’s definitely a special player and he’s helping us very much. I hope he can get even better.”
The relationship between Kevin De Bruyne and Haaland, who has been instrumental in City’s success this season, has been crucial. On April 8, the Belgian and Haaland teamed up to defeat Southampton, bringing his career total in the Premier League to 100. De Bruyne has a total of 23 assists for the current season, and Bernardo thinks their “special combination” has been crucial to City’s push for the treble.
“Erling has a special combination with Kevin, who loves those kind of players like Erling,” he added. “Because when he’s got the ball you need to make runs and Erling is so strong, so quick going in behind. It’s a perfect combination and they are doing so well, as we have seen this season. The last few years we have had winning runs of 20 games, or been unbeaten, and now we are in good form again. We hope to keep it that way because we want to win the trophies. We’ve been there before.”
On Wednesday night, Pep Guardiola’s team will host fellow contenders Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium in what will likely be their biggest game of the season thus far and one of the most significant in recent Premier League history.
