Sebastien Haller equalled Marco van Basten’s record

DBasia.news – Ajax Amsterdam won 5-1 at the headquarters of Sporting Lisbon. Former West Ham, Sebastien Haller became the main actor with a score of four goals.

Ajax played the first match of Group C, Thursday (16/09) am, WIB, in a group which also contained Borussia Dortmund and Besiktas. Despite playing at the headquarters against Ajax, he was not afraid.

With 54% possession, Ajax released 13 kicks and six of them were on target. Of the six kicks, five were scored (efficiently). Four Ajax goals came from one player: Sebastien Haller (2′ 9′ 51′ 63′) who was complemented by Steven Berghuis’ goal (39′), returned by Paulinho’s consolation goal (33′).

Ruben Amorim, Sporting’s coach, saw that his team lack experience playing at the highest level of Europe and admitted Ajax were the better team.

“We tried to turn things around, conceded the third goal, had one offside chance that could have changed the game,” said Ruben Amorin.

“Then we conceded the fourth goal and we didn’t know how to handle it. I’m very proud of them, they were brave. I told them to close 5-4-1 and they didn’t want to. Ajax were better.”

One thing that caught the eye was Haller’s four goals. The 27-year-old forward has faded over the past two years at West Ham United, but at Ajax the Ivory Coast international player has found his confidence back.

“I still can’t believe it. It’s kind of a dream. I can’t expect more than this. I’m just happy and trying to enjoy tonight,” Haller explained.

“I’m just trying not to get too emotional because I’m still young and playing a game like this is a dream, so I’m just focused on doing my job, focused on the other team, tactically, physically and today I thank my team mates for all this.”

Haller had four shots and all four led to the goal. That amount has exceeded the total number of kicks by Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi, and Neymar (two kicks) when PSG drew 1-1 with Club Brugge.

Another slick record from Haller is that his four goals broke a record, equaling the record of Dutch football legend Marco van Basten. Only two players in the Champions League have marked their debut there with four goals: Haller and Van Basten.