Football news - Erling Haaland sitting pretty as the master of a new generation

It took a little while on Tuesday evening, but it was always in the post; you don’t score goals at the rate that Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain have been putting them away in this calendar year and then grind out a cagey goalless draw.

It was a slow burner at the Westfalenstadion, but two of the most high-octane, high-scoring sides in Europe eventually caught fire in a thrilling second half. Fanning those flames were three young players who could have a serious stake in the destination of the Champions League title in this new decade.

Erling Haaland and Jadon Sancho are busy enjoying the last of their teenage kicks before they step into their own twenties and seem to have struck up a telepathic understanding of each other’s game in just seven weeks. Haaland has now bagged 11 goals in just 7 games since his transfer from Red Bull Salzburg; before Christmas, he netted eight goals in the Champions League group matches for his former club. Sancho has 15 goals and 15 assists for Dortmund this season.

Ahead of both, in age and achievement, is the 21-year-old Kylian Mbappe of Paris Saint-Germain. Already a World Cup winner after becoming the youngest scorer in the final since Pele, he has 19 goals in 31 games so far in his fledgling Champions League career. People are obsessed with numbers in the modern game, and along with Haaland and Sancho he is putting forth a statistical case for impending greatness that seems unquestionable right now. Their current market value, even by the standards of modern football, must be astronomical.

But never mind the numbers, take in the action. Sancho was absolutely electric on the first half, controlling Dortmund’s attacking play with an assured maturity far beyond his age. Mbappe was not to be outdone though, dancing through three players with an almost contemptuous ease to set up a goal for Neymar in the second half.

Then there was Haaland, who capped a performance of thrilling intensity with the match winning goals for Dortmund. The lethality with which the second was dispatched is evidence of a player high on confidence and overflowing with menacing intent. In attitude, drive and ability he is eerily reminiscent of a young Wayne Rooney, who could be swung like a wrecking ball directly through whatever was in front of him at the same age. Arguably, Haaland is marginally ahead of where Rooney was at 19; where might his ability take him if he can avoid Rooney’s unfortunate knack of disruptive injuries at era-defining junctures?

What we witnessed tonight could be more formative steps of three serious, generational talents who are preparing to take this competition over and brush the older generation aside. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have been wrestling for domination at the lip of world football’s Reichenbach Falls for what seems like an aeon now, but both are advancing ever further into their thirties.

Even if they could sip elixir from the same well as Roger Federer, staying at the very top in a dynamic team environment like football is dependent on so many other factors, not least your team-mates. In the Champions League, Ronaldo hasn’t yet found the winning alchemy in Turin that he had in Madrid. Messi currently seems at war with his own club, with rumours circling that he could do the unthinkable and take his incredibly lucrative services elsewhere.

They say getting to the top is the easy bit, and the hard part is staying there. That maxim only makes the unfathomable, decade plus run of form by Ronaldo and Messi all the more remarkable. Those old dogs might have some sizeable fight in them yet, but the kids Haaland, Sancho and Mbappe are more than alright. Their advance looks as unstoppable as Messi and Ronaldo’s did as the noughties began to wind up. Don’t sleep on football’s Generation Z.