Erling Haaland becomes just the 14th player to be given 10/10 by L'Equipe
Erling Haaland captured a football record that not even Cristiano Ronaldo can lay claim to, after his hat-trick in the Manchester derby, becoming the 14th player to receive a 10/10 rating in L'Equipe.
Haaland scored his third hat-trick in three Premier League home games on Sunday afternoon, as Manchester City absolutely battered local rivals United.
The three goal salvo from the Norwegian was his third in just eight games, making him quickest to the milestone in Premier League history by a long way.
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Before the destructive striker moved from Borussia Dortmund this summer, Michael Owen's 48 games to reach three hat-tricks had been the quickest, and he's already level with Ronaldo, Didier Drogba and Son Heung-min for the amount of them scored.
The performance against Erik ten Hag's side was so good that even French outlet L'Equipe had to give him a perfect score, and not many people manage to get that.
The newspaper is well known for its quite harsh marking of players, and only 13 players before the 22-year-old have ever managed to get full marks.
Lionel Messi has twice made it onto the list but even the seven time Ballon d'Or winner hasn't earnt the accolade for over 10 years, when Barcelona beat Bayer Leverkusen 7-1.
As well as Haaland and Messi, the other players to have earned the full marks are Franck Sauzee, Bruno Martini, Oleg Salenko, Lars Winfield, Robert Lewandowski, Carlos Eduardo, Neymar, Dusan Tadic, Lucas Moura, Serge Gnabry, Kylian Mbappe and Alban Lafont.
Phil Foden was unlucky not to add his name to the list, with the England forward also scoring three goals in the game and ending up with a 9.9 rating.
It would have only been the second time in the ratings history that two players from the same match had been given the full 10 out of 10.
The previous occasion that happened was also the first time L'Equipe gave anyone a 100% rating, in France u21s win over Greece u21s in the Under 21 European Championships in 1988.
In the 21st century, only two players have earned the full score from the French newspaper without scoring a hat-trick, Tadic in Ajax's Champions League win over Real Madrid and the previous recipient of the score, before Haaland, Lafont, for his brilliant performance against PSG last season.
Foden opened the scoring in the eighth minute, with a brilliant finish from Bernardo Silva's cross from the left of the box, and United were lucky not to go further behind when Ilkay Gundogan struck the post from a free kick.
Haaland got in on the action in the 34th minute, heading home from Kevin de Bruyne's corner, and it was made easier for the former Red Bull Salzburg striker as he was being marked by Christian Eriksen for some reason.
He doubled his tally before half time by getting on the end of De Bruyne's through ball, with an outstretched leg helping to divert the ball past David de Gea.
The Norwegian then turned creator as he crossed for Foden to knock the ball in at the back post for goal number four, leading to some United fans heading for the exit at the break.
After Antony pulled one back for the visitors, Haaland completed his hat-trick, knocking home from around the penalty spot after Sergio Gomez's cross.
Foden then earned his first match ball of his career, once again set up by the blonde football monster , when he smashed the ball past De Gea with his left foot.
United then earned some pride when they scored two late goals, both through Anthony Martial, but in truth they were absolutely battered.
Topics:Ā Premier League, Erling Haaland, Man City, Man Utd
Ryan Sidle