Haaland's goal is to deliver what he was brought in to do – conquer Europe

ERLING Haaland knew why City had signed him. Everyone knew why City had signed him.

- By TYRONE MARSHALL

He joined a club that had scored 485 Premier League goals in five seasons, winning the title in four of them. As Haaland so succinctly put in his first season: "They didn’t bring me in to win the Premier League because they already know how to win it."

Instead, the Norwegian machine was signed to add that little bit extra in Europe. It was the trophy everyone at City wanted and the trophy Haaland himself was desperate for.

"You can read between the lines," he said in that first season, confidence as usual not lacking. "I'm here to try to help the club develop even more and to win the Champions League for the first time."

Mission accomplished within one season, when Haaland plundered a barely believable 52 goals in 53 Premier League games. But then, in many ways, the striker wasn’t actually the missing piece of the jigsaw.

Okay, he scored 12 goals in his first eight games in the Champions League with City, including five in one match against RB Leipzig in the last-16 and home and away against Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals. But City had begun to reach the deepest stages of the competition on a regular basis anyway.

This time, they conquered the demons that had built up, but they kind of did it without Haaland. He didn’t score in the semifinal against Real Madrid despite City scoring five across the two legs and he didn’t score in the final against Inter Milan.

None of that mattered because the Blues were champions of Europe and treble-winners.