• Source:JND
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Erling Haaland scripted history with an impactful performance as Manchester City kicked off their UEFA Champions League 2025-26 campaign with a victory over Napoli on Thursday.

Haaland now has scored 50 goals in the UEFA Champions League, and has done so in just 49 games. He has become the fastest player to 50 goals in the elite competition. In fact, he is the first player to achieve this feat in under 50 games. The Norwegian striker breaks the record of Ruud van Nistelrooy, who had taken 62 matches to reach 50 goals.

City ended up beating Napoli 2-0 on the back of goals from Haaland and Jeremy Doku.

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Fastest to complete 50 UCL goals

Erling Haaland: 49 matches

Ruud van Nistelrooy: 62 matches

Lionel Messi: 66 matches

Robert Lewandowski: 77 matches

Kylian Mbappe: 79 matches

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Haaland had earlier broken Van Nistelrooy's records of being the fastest player to 30 and 40 goals respectively in the UEFA Champions League, achieving both feats in 2023.

Man City manager Pep Guardiola came up with an interesting statement, saying that the star forward can break Cristiano Ronaldo's all-time UCL record in the future. Haaland is now joint 11th in the all-time UEFA Champions League goalscorers list. "The numbers speak for themselves. If he plays 10, 12 years... if he maintains this progression, absolutely (he can). How fortunate are we to have him?" Guardiola said.

The 25-year-old Haaland has been in remarkable goal-scoring form lately, having scored 130 goals in 151 appearances since joining City from Borussia Dortmund in 2022. He has scored 12 goals in seven appearances for club and country this season — including five in Norway's 11-1 win over Moldova last week. He also struck twice in City's 3-0 victory over United on Sunday.

In the other fixtures of the UCL matchday 1, Barcelona defeated Newcastle United 2-1, whereas Bayern Munich got the better of Chelsea by 3-1. On the other hand, Real Madrid, PSG, and Liverpool registered victories in their respective fixtures.