Manchester City defender, John Stones, has claimed that his teammate Erling Haaland will break the UEFA Champions League records of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo after his incredible display against RB Leipzig on Wednesday.
Haaland recently broke a long-standing record at Man City by becoming the club’s all-time leading scorer for a single season, with 39 goals.
The Norway international scored five goals in Man City’s Champions League last-16 second-leg 7-0 victory over RB Leipzig.
He now has 33 goals from just 25 Champions League games so far in his career.
But Stones believes that Haaland has the potential to emulate the incredible goal-scoring feats of Messi and Ronaldo, who have scored 129 and 140 goals, respectively, in Europe’s elite club competition.
“How do I go about this without putting pressure on Erling?” Stones said via Mirror Football when quizzed about Haaland emulating Ronaldo and Messi in the Champions League.
“He’d probably thrive off it. I believe he really could do what he wants, just from his hunger, his attitude and his professionalism and I’d love to see him do it, definitely.’
“I think he wants to just win. I think if you have that mentality, then the personal accolades just come naturally without chasing them. That could be totally wrong, but I think Erling is a huge team player and with that kind of mindset, he is going that way to break more records.”