The young Norwegian star struck twice in his first Bundesliga game of the season and is as confident as ever
Erling Haaland has picked up where he left off last season as he scored twice in Borussia Dortmund’s 3-0 win over Borussia Monchengladbach and showed his mental strength from the spot.
In Dortmund’s first Bundesliga game of the season, Giovanni Reyna opened the scoring in the 35th minute before winning a penalty early in the second half.
After VAR intervention to award the spot-kick, Haaland stepped up and made no mistake with a low effort to the bottom left.
The Norway star then wrapped up the victory in the 77th minute as he chipped over Yann Sommer after being sent through on goal by Jadon Sancho.
Speaking after the match, Haaland joked about Sommer’s failed attempt to put him off from the spot and expressed his joy at playing in front of fans again.
“It was a nice penalty and it was very nice to score against Sommer,” Haaland told Bundesliga. “He tried to get into my mind but he had no chance…it was a nice minute there!
“It’s a good result for us. I’m happy that it’s all underway again, especially with 10,000 fans in the stadium. It felt unbelievable to have them back there. They supported us, and we needed that today.
“They gave us an extra boost, and it was obviously fantastic to score a goal in front of them.”
Reyna, dubbed ‘The American Dream’ by Haaland, scored his first Bundesliga goal in the match and is still just 17.
— Goal (@goal) September 19, 2020
Alongside Haaland, Sancho and Jude Bellingham, Reyna makes up a lethal, youthful quartet looking to fire Dortmund to silverware this season.
“It was a very good start to the season. We have a lot of young players, it’s really enjoyable,” Reyna said post-match.
“We all have so much energy, but we need to keep working, we need to improve even more. We were so happy to see that some of our fans could be there again. That’s very important for us as players.”
Dortmund manager Lucien Favre is also savouring the prospect of using the club’s talented youngsters this season.
“I like working with young players, but of course I like working with experienced ones too,” Favre said.
“The variety is really good, that was there to see in our 3-0 win today. Mats plays the ball forward, and Jadon and Erling sprint the length of the pitch. It was a brilliant goal at the end.
“The variety gives us a great feeling. We’re going to need all of our players over this long season. Now we have to analyse the match before picking things up next week.”
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