Erling Haaland has left his Manchester City teammates lost for words with his goalscoring heroics.
Haaland scored for the fifth successive game in City's 4-0 Champions League win over Sevilla, taking his tally to 12 in seven appearances for Pep Guardiola's side.
The £51million striker now has 25 goals in just 20 Champions League appearances and is on course to rewrite the competition's record books with his remarkable feats.
To put Haaland's exploits into context, it took Cristiano Ronaldo, the competition's all-time leading scorer, 30 games to plunder his first Champions League goal [excluding one in a qualifier].
If he carries on scoring at his current rate, Haaland, 22, will comfortably surpass Ronaldo's record, which stands at 140 goals from 183 Champions League games.
City defender Manuel Akanji, who made his debut for the Blues in Tuesday's win over Sevilla, played alongside Haaland at Borussia Dortmund for two-and-a-half years.
Akanji, who saw first-hand Haaland's prolific scoring for Dortmund, with the forward bagging 86 goals in 89 games, admitted he is lost for words when discussing the prolific Norwegian striker.
“At this point, finding the words is hard!” said Akanji.
“I've played with him for two-and-a-half years and a lot of people asked whether he can score goals at this level when he came to Dortmund.
“Then they said that he needs to do this in the Premier League as well and he keeps on doing it. I think it's hard to doubt him anymore at this point.
“He's so young and he's scoring so many goals. He's also learning a lot more about the game, where he needs to be to help the team and he's making big steps.
“If he keeps on improving, the sky's the limit. When he gets the ball in the box, he scores.
“He holds the ball up very well, he has the pace to run in behind and there are so many things you have to be careful of as a defender.
“The team around him also played the perfect passes and made it easier for him. He works hard every day like the rest of us and that's why he gets the results.”
Akanji, who joined City on deadline day in a £15m deal, also reserved special praise for Kevin De Bruyne and said Haaland has the perfect provider in the Belgian playmaker.
“Kevin plays these perfect passes for Erling, but not only for him, for the other guys as well,” said Akanji.
“Their actions before give him the space, Kevin has the class to play the passes in behind and Erling finishes them.”
