Haaland hits 45 as Man City thrash Bayern Munich

Erling Haaland scored his 45th goal of the season as Manchester City took a commanding 3-0 lead over Bayern Munich from their Champions League quarter-final, first leg on Tuesday.

Rodri and Bernardo Silva were also on target for the English champions, who took a giant stride towards finally conquering Europe for the first time.

Victory was sweet for City boss Pep Guardiola as he came up against his former club for the first time since leaving Bayern for Manchester in 2016, but he warned that the job is not yet done.

"I've been three years there and I know in Europe this team is special. To knock out these type of teams you have to make two good games not just one," said Guardiola.

"I know exactly what we have to do there, They are capable to score one, two, three goals. We have to do our game with huge personality."

City also partially settled a Champions League score with Bayern boss Thomas Tuchel, who beat Guardiola's men to lift the trophy as Chelsea manager in the 2021 final.

Tuchel was appointed less than three weeks ago by the German champions with one eye on this tie and he believed his side deserved more.

"I try to not allow my players to focus on the result because it is not the deserved result, it does not tell the story of this match," said Tuchel.

"I've seen so many good things that I refuse to just focus on the result. You may say 'that's not Bayern' but I was very proud on the sideline, we were courageous and showed the right character."

City fought off interest from Bayern among other European giants to win the race to sign Haaland a year ago for nights like this and the Norwegian played his part in a clinical performance.

Haaland uncharacteristically fluffed his lines with the first big chance of the game when his