Haaland breaks Bundesliga record in Dortmund rout

Erling Haaland’s sensational start to life at Borussia Dortmund continued on Saturday as he scored twice in his side’s 5-0 rout of Union Berlin.

The brace means he is the first player in Bundesliga history to score seven goals in his first three appearances in the competition.

Incredibly, each of the former Red Bull Salzburg forward’s first seven shots in Germany’s top flight have ended as goals.

The 19-year-old netted a hat-trick on his debut against Augsburg on January 18 after being introduced as a 56th-minute substitute, following his move from Austria earlier in the month.

He followed that up with two more goals in the thumping 5-1 win over Cologne on January 24 after coming on with 25 minutes to go.

He was included from the start for the first time against Union Berlin and repaid coach Lucien Favre’s faith, scoring in either half. He was also fouled to win a penalty that was converted by Marco Reus.

There was one record he did not manage to break however. While it took Haaland just 135 minutes to score his seventh Bundesliga goal, it was 29 minutes short of the record of 106 set by former Dortmund striker Paco Alacer.

Speaking after the game Haaland said: “I feel in a good place and have not had any problems integrating.

“We understand each other on the pitch, we saw that today. That is the most important thing. It was nice to play from the start. I’ve got to get even fitter, but that will come with each game.”

The win was Dortmund’s third in a row since the winter break, their best start to the second half of a Bundesliga season for seven years.

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This latest victory moves them up to third in the table, three points behind leaders Bayern Munich.

“We were very good at winning the ball back. The two goals before half-time were very nicely done. Our third goal decided the game. We won 5-0 and we’re obviously very satisfied,” said Favre.

Next up for Dortmund is a DFB-Pokal trip to Werder Bremen on Tuesday.