The manager of the teenager striker’s next opponents feels they may need to take drastic measures to keep him quiet
Koln coach Markus Gisdol joked that his side may need to park three buses in their penalty area to stop Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland when they meet in the Bundesliga on Friday.
The 19-year-old striker, who joined Dortmund this month from Red Bull Salzburg, made a stunning start to his career in Germany with a hat-trick in his debut appearance.
Dortmund were 3-1 down when Haaland was brought on in the second half and the Norway international needed just three minutes to open his Bundesliga account, adding two more to help fire his side to a 5-3 win at Augsburg.
Gisdol acknowledged that it will be tough to silence a man who scored 29 goals in just 27 games in Austria and joked that they may need to take extreme measures.
“We still have a really big team bus that we will drive over in. Maybe we just put it in the box – or three buses next to each other,” he joked to reporters.
“We have good players too, so we’ll see how it goes.”
But the 50-year-old says there are many reasons to fear Lucien Favre’s team, who remain unbeaten in the German top-flight this season.
“Maybe we can stop him, maybe we can’t, but we would be making a big mistake by focusing on only one Dortmund player.
“From [Marco] Reus to [Mario] Gotze, [Thorgan] Hazard or [Jadon] Sancho, Dortmund have a whole series of excellent players.
“Whoever plays, they’re always top quality. With Haaland, they’ve maybe gained a new component, because they haven’t had a player like that before.”
He added: “We want to show our football again and, if possible, reach the next level.
“We definitely need a top performance for this, but we are not going there to pass the time, nor do we say that we have nothing to lose in Dortmund.”
Dortmund are currently fourth in the Bundesliga after 18 weeks and sit seven points adrift of leaders RB Leipzig.
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