Erling Haaland chases Cristiano Ronaldo’s record while Eddie Howe’s Newcastle rotation backfires – Champions League success and failure | Football News

ALSO: Eddie Howe’s decision to rotate comes back to haunt him as Newcastle beat Borussia Dortmund as Germany bounce back from Bundesliga disappointment; Celtic suffer another European defeat Lesson learned, the Scottish side are bottom of Group B after four games.

Haaland is on track to break all records

After Erling Haaland sprained his ankle in Saturday’s defeat to Bournemouth, there are doubts he will risk playing against Young Boys ahead of Sunday’s Premier League start against Chelsea. sky sports.

But Haaland, who finished second behind Messi for this year’s Ballon d’Or, had the bigger picture in mind as he put pressure on Guardiola to play him.

After being the Champions League’s top scorer in two of the last three seasons, he knows what it takes to win the award. He didn’t want to miss the chance to add to his scoring tally against one of the weaker teams in the competition.

Haaland didn’t waste his chance, scoring twice, bringing his total to 39 goals in 34 Champions League games. At just 23 years old, he is already equaling Cristiano Ronaldo’s record of 140 games.

The Norwegian striker needs 102 goals to overtake Cristiano Ronaldo, and at his current pace, it will take him 89 more games to do so. There’s still a long way to go, but Haaland is on his way.
Zinni Boswell

Howe’s Newcastle rotation backfires

Eddie Howe raised eyebrows when he named the team for Newcastle’s 2-0 loss to Borussia Dortmund. Miguel Almiron and Anthony Gordon – two of the four offensive players he could call upon – were benched, which didn’t make much sense.

Yes, the Magpies boss will have to rotate his injured squad at some point: Howe named eight out of a possible nine substitutes, which shows just how fragile this Newcastle team is in terms of depth.But for sure, the games that rotate are no

If you fail in the Champions League group stage, you will not qualify.

With so much rotation, Howe handed Lewis Hall and Tino Liveramento their Champions League debuts – and both Dortmund goals exploited that inexperience. Hall received a yellow card nine minutes later, only for Marcel Sabitzer to get around him and cross for Niklas Volkrug to open the scoring.

Livramento, who impressed up front, was unable to get close to Julian Brandt on his second break.

Bringing Almiron and Gordon on in the second half did improve Newcastle in Germany, but that improvement will leave the Magpies thinking about the “what ifs”. Howe’s attempts to save and rotate this time went unrewarded.
Sam Blitz

Real Dortmund return after Bayern blow

The scale of the task Newcastle face in Dortmund cannot be underestimated. The 4-0 defeat by Terzic’s team to Bayern Munich was an anomaly. Dortmund are unbeaten in a further 27 home games since August last year.

Both managers made three changes to their squads starting from the weekend, but that’s where the similarities end. Terzic introduced Nicolas Süle, Felix Nmecha and Karim Adeyemi – three of Dortmund’s most impressive performers of the night.

Livramento and Hall only started this season in the League Cup and were thrown here afterwards. Liveramento was good, but it was tough for Hall. By halftime he was hooked. While Newcastle brought in Lewis Miley, Dortmund turned to Marco Reus.

If there’s one question for Terzic and his team, it’s whether there’s a mental barrier to facing their Bundesliga rivals now. This is what one would expect from Dortmund on the front foot in their own stadium. Their performance was subdued compared to Saturday’s game against Bayern.

Dortmund have lost nine of their last 10 games against them. It may not be decisive in the title race, but progressing in the Champions League requires beating the best players. Despite their record, and on nights like this, Terzic’s Dortmund still need to prove they can do it.
Adam Bate

Another painful lesson for the Celtics

It was a painful night in Madrid for Celtic, with Atletico teaching them a painful lesson as they had a player sent off for the third time this season.

The Champions League is ruthless, and despite the harshness of Daizen Maeda’s red card, the Hoops appear to be at it again.

The Celtics were unlucky at times, but that wasn’t the only reason they failed to pick up more than a point.

Is it just a classroom divide or a psychological one?

Brendan Rodgers enjoyed an away win in the Champions League during his first term in charge, but the loss of Jota and Karl-Staffelt shortly after his return to the club did not help matters this season. help.

Only with significant investment in the squad can the Scottish champions pull off an impressive victory like that famous one against Barcelona 11 years ago.
Alison Conroy