Jack Grealish led the praise from Manchester City players for their 'absolute ball magnet' Erling Haaland after his five goals against RB Leipzig.
Haaland became just the third player in the history of the Champions League to score five goals in a game to steer his team into the quarter-finals - and did it in just over an hour on the pitch before being substituted by Pep Guardiola. That haul took him to 39 for the season, overtaking Tommy Johnson's club record that has stood for nearly 100 years for the most goals in a single campaign, with up to 19 games still to play.
All five of Haaland's goals came from close range, and while he took the headlines it was an outstanding team performance that included a return to his best for Kevin De Bruyne. The Belgian has had to endure more criticism than usual this season but was superb as he took the game away from the German side.
Also read: Haaland says what Guardiola refuses to after RB Leipzig win
John Stones had a prime spot to see the players ahead of him shine, and believes that a fit-and-firing Haaland and De Bruyne will be key to the team's chances of Champions League success. If the ball comes as easily to Haaland in future rounds, there will be no dressing room complaints about how easy his goals look.
"I think that's definitely why they're here and that's why they're playing at arguably the best club in the world, the best team in the world and they do it on the biggest stages," said Stones. "As soon as Kevin went in on his right foot I knew he was going to put it towards that top corner.
"That's Kevin's quality, his power and then Erling in the right spot at the right time - an 'absolute ball magnet', I think Jack was calling him in the dressing room after. I get to see it first-hand on the pitch and big players turn up on big occasions.
"That's the way the club's wanting to go and moving. I've spoken previously about the club doing so well.
"We have players that are leaving or retiring and finishing their careers here or wanting a new challenge and moving to a different club. The players that we always bring in are incredible and that's credit to the guys up top.
"The characters, how they fit in straight away, it's not an easy place to fit in with how trained we are in our roles and responsibilities. Those players really do count and I think everyone plays a vital part in allowing them to go and do that."
Stones enjoyed the final part of the game on the bench with Haaland as City saw out the tie and De Bruyne added a seventh goal. The Norwegian had told Guardiola he wanted to stay on to score a double hat-trick, although Julian Alvarez came on instead.
While Haaland scored five, it could have been a very different story as defender Manu Akanji went close first for two of the goals and could also have netted in the move that City were eventually awarded a penalty for. Akanji's frustration at not getting on the scoresheet did not go unnoticed by an amused Stones and Haaland.
"We were laughing at the chances that Manu had and then it just kept falling for Erling," the defender said. "There was the last goal that he scored, I don't know if it had come off Manu's knee or something.
"You could tell that Manu really wanted to score but obviously it dropped to Erling again. We were just having a chuckle about that."
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