WHAT is Alfie Haaland putting in his boy’s pre-match lasagne?
The Norwegian dad revealed at the weekend he is making the baked pasta dish for Erling on the eve of every home game.
And it is becoming a recipe for success for the 22-year-old strike sensation as well as Manchester City.
Another two goals inside the first 32 minutes here took his tally to an incredible 19 in 11 matches with his new club.
Twelve of those have come at the Etihad which is becoming a happy hunting ground for the £51.4million new boy.
Once again the faithful were treated to another rout which put them on the brink of the knock-out stages once again.
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It took just seven minutes for Haaland to continue his astonishing goal-scoring streak as he found space to meet Joao Cancelo’s low cut-back.
With his first touch of the game he swept a shot past Kamil Grabara from 12 yards in the blink of an eye.
The Polish keeper was wearing a protective mask and made a series of excellent saves to keep the hosts at bay.
He denied Haaland on a couple of occasions – one of which would have smacked him square in the chops had he not got his hands to it – while also made a couple of acrobatic stops from Jack Grealish.
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Bernardo Silva also hit the outside of the post after nice work by the England ace – and skied another one high over the bar.
Yet there was no disguising the gulf in class between these two teams and eventually the pressure told.
Grabara failed to hang onto a long-range volley from Sergio Gomez and there was Haaland to gobble up the rebound by poking it into the empty net.
That made it 28 goals in this competition for Haaland – that’s the most for any player in their first 30 appearances, even though the Norwegian has only played 22.
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Shortly before the break, Grealish teed up Gomez again and his shot deflected off Denis Vavro aa well as Davit Khocholava before bobbling over the line.
A City player was lurking just in case – and yeah, you guessed it, it was Haaland.
Surely it was only a matter of time before he claimed another match-ball – but then Pep Guardiola had other ideas.
The City boss had been smiling and shaking his head as his £51.4m new boy did the business for him yet again.
But he spoiled the fun by taking him off at half-time.
You imagine that could be bad news for Saturday’s opponents here Southampton.
He could have had a golden chance to claim another hat-trick as the returning Aymeric Laporte was bundled over by Marko Stamenic within 10 minutes of the re-start.
Riyad Mahrez – making his 200th appearance for City – insists he is still the regular spot-kick taker and he stepped up and sent Grabara the wrong way.
That was a perfect way for the Algerian to respond to a bit of thinly-veiled criticism from Guardiola over his recent displays on the eve of the game.
Argentina striker Julian Alvarez has been completely upstaged by Haaland since arriving in the summer – but the former River Plate man has shown some promising signs.
And he got in on the act as he finished from close range after some neat approach work from the excellent Grealish and Mahrez.
The ex Aston Villa captain revealed he is learning to become a DJ in his spare time – and certainly led the Danish defence on a merry dance at times.
All that was missing was a goal and he can’t say he didn’t have the chances. Maybe he needs to have a word with his new mate Haaland.
A point in Copenhagen next week will be enough to see City through to the knock-out stages in the New Year with the minimum of fuss.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
