Erling Haaland explodes for second-half hat trick in Manchester City win over Crystal Palace

Haaland’s probably going to score a few goals this year

It seems like Erling Haaland is going to score a lot of goals for Manchester City.

For the second week in a row, the defending Premier League champions came from two goals down to get a result, this time in a 4-2 win over Crystal Palace, and it wouldn’t have happened without Haaland’s first hat trick since completing a summer move from Borussia Dortmund.

Palace raced out to an early 2-0 lead at the Etihad Stadium thanks to a John Stones own goal and a powerful header from Joachim Andersen, and got into halftime without conceding.

Last week, Newcastle lead Man City 3-1 only for Pep Guardiola’s side to come back for a 3-3 draw. This time, they took it a step further, scoring four times in the second half to make it three wins out of four to start the 2022-23 season.

Bernardo Silva got the comeback in motion with a 53rd minute goal, setting the stage for Haaland. First, the Norway striker knifed through the Palace defense to nod in Phil Foden’s delicate 62nd minute cross, leveling the scores.

Man City then took the lead in the 70th minute, as Haaland got the final touch following a stunningly intricate sequence of one-touch play inside the box after a quickly-taken corner had caught Palace off-guard.

Finally, Haaland sealed his hat trick as the game got stretched. Ilkay Gundogan drove forward through the midfield before pushing play forward to Haaland, who held off a defender before powering a shot past Vicente Guaita, effectively killing the game off with his league-leading sixth goal of the season.

“It was a proud moment for me and my family and yes I’m happy,” Haaland told the BBC after the match. “It’s a mentality that we trust each other and we know the chances will come. It’s about keeping going. In the end we scored four goals and that’s a really good thing.”

“We have not done anything special for him that he didn’t do before,” noted Guardiola, again speaking to the BBC. “It is important for him to get goals. He has the sense to score goals. The third one, to have the quality to be strong then put the ball in the net.”

Check out Haaland’s hat trick

[lawrence-related id=5775,5116]