Man City's Erling Haaland closes in on Lionel Messi's unique Champions League record originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here. Manchester City secured a 2-0 win against Villarreal in their third match of the 2025/26 on October 21 at Estadi de la Ceramica.

Every team needs a striker to be in top form, and if Manchester City are going to win the Premier League, they will need to get the best out of Erling Haaland.

Norwegian superstar Erling Haaland is on another planet right now - and even iconic head coach Pep Guardiola says the comparison to soccer's two greatest modern icons is officially

Erling Haaland scored again in the UEFA Champions League for Manchester City, closing the gap on Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in the all-time goal-scoring charts.

Despite their stylistic similarities, Cherki is not the new Messi in this Manchester City side, that acclaim goes to a rather more high-profile "monster". By scoring twice against Nashville in Fort Lauderdale on Friday night in round one of the MLS Cup play-offs, Messi has taken his tally to 891 senior goals for club and country.

Erling Haaland pulled out the robot dance in the win over Bournemouth and his levels were compared to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo by boss Pep Guardiola.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has made an interesting comparison between Cityzens midfielder Bernardo Silva and Lionel Messi, claiming after the Portuguese's goal against Villarreal on Tuesday night that both him and the great Argentine have a "hammer in their necks",