Haaland did it again. He scored a brace for Borussia Dortmund’s 2-1 win over PSG for the first leg of the round of 16 of the Champions League and thus left the French champion close to being eliminated again in the same stage as the past three seasons. Neymar had managed to give the Parisians the temporary draw, but they left Germany with a bittersweet taste since despite the defeat they were able to score an away goal. However, the idea that is in the head of the French team is its stigma with the first round of the knockout stages of the Champions League, an instance they don’t seem to be able to leave behind.

???????? Erling Braut Haaland = 1st teenager to score 10 in a single campaign in #UCL history ???????????? pic.twitter.com/6zAbGwQsBE — UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) February 18, 2020

Haaland’s big European night

The Norwegian Haaland remains unrivaled: thanks to his double he reached his tenth goal in the current European competition (eight with Salzburg). He scored the first after taking advantage of a lost ball within the box that did not give enough reaction time to Keylor Navas, the most decisive player of PSG, while in the second he nailed a missile with his left foot from more than 20 meters. The 19-year-old striker is really impressive. Since joining Dortmund, he accumulates 11 goals in nine games. And he made them in 439 minutes on the field, which gives him an efficiency of a goal every 39'. Awesome numbers for a player for whom 20 million euros were paid to Red Bull Salzburg. Clearly that price has multiplied exponentially since then.

The German team went ahead to half of Europe with the signing and the result that he is returning from the first moment is incredible. He scored in his debut with Dortmund in the League and in the Cup and has now done the same in the Champions League, wherein this campaign he has 10 goals in 7 games. In addition, Haaland is the first player to play the tournament with two different teams, in this case, the aforementioned RB Salzburg and Borussia Dortmund.

10 – Erling Haaland has scored 10 Champions League goals in just seven appearances, reaching the tally four games quicker than any other player in the competition’s history. Ridiculous. pic.twitter.com/OPXGPjl7MG — OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 18, 2020

Mbappé and Neymar to the rescue

On the other hand, a dull visitor team featured the sagacity of Kylian Mbappé. The French forward understood the context that his team was living and after leaving a stack of rivals behind he managed to assist a solitary Neymar, who only had to push the ball towards the bottom of the net to score the transitional tie. The Brazilian played again three weeks later and showed a good level. He scored his second goal in three games in this Champions League and was one of the highlights in PSG’s offensive parcel. His goal, however, was insufficient to leave Germany with a victory, and now they will have to look for the comeback at home despite investing more than 1,000 million euros in signings since the arrival of the Qatari funds. After falling the last three seasons in Champions in the round of 16 it does not seem that PSG is profiting its investment.

In this case, PSG arrived in Dortmund with all its cast of stars, but they spent the entire first half without taking a shot on goal. In fact, it was not until the 64th minute when they finally tested Bürki. PSG has a curse with the round of 16 and at the Signal-Iduna Park, they showed it again. In Paris, they will have to assume the responsibility of being the favorite in the second leg and, in addition to the 1-2, they must deal with the karma that seems to be pursuing them in the continental competition.