Champions League: Erling Haaland Leads Dortmund to Victory Over Sevilla

The UEFA Champions League round of 16 continued on Wednesday with two high-profile matchups. [...]

By John Newby

The UEFA Champions League round of 16 continued on Wednesday with two high-profile matchups. Sevilla faced off with Borussia Dortmund while Juventus took on Porto. Dortmund's Erling Haaland stole the show by scoring two goals and adding an assist during a 3-2 win.

Sevilla took the lead only seven minutes into the match. This lead lasted 12 minutes before Haaland set up Mahmoud Dahoud's matching goal. The Norwegian then scored his first goal of the day at the 27-minute mark to give Dortmund the lead. Two minutes before halftime, Marco Reus set up Haaland's second goal, giving the team a 3-1 advantage heading into the break.

With this performance, Haaland earned the honor of Man of the Match. He also did something that neither Cristiano Ronaldo nor Lionel Messi managed to achieve in their legendary careers. Haaland scored his 18th goal in only 13 UCL appearances. Ronaldo scored zero, while Messi only scored three in the same span of time.

Haaland's performance comes only one day after Kylian Mbappe impressed on the pitch. He led an undermanned Paris Saint-Germain team missing Neymar and Angel Di Maria and scored three goals. The team defeated Barcelona 4-1 while the 22-year-old marked the first time an opposing player achieved a Champions League hat trick at Camp Nou in over 23 years.

The first goal took place roughly five minutes after Lionel Messi gave Barcelona 1-0 lead on a penalty kick. PSG's Marco Verratti passed the ball to Mbappe, who created some space with a nifty move before launching the ball into the net to tie the game. The 22-year-old only continued to produce for the remaining minutes.

Mbappe scored his second goal when Alessandro Florenzi got free down the field. The PSG player tracked down a ball from Leandro Paredes and then passed it across the face of the net toward a teammate. Barcelona's Gerard Pique half-blocked the pass and appeared to shut down any scoring opportunities, but Mbappe ran up and shot it into the net. Mbappe added his third goal with roughly minutes remaining and secured the victory.

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