Haaland closes in on Messi's Champions League record

PARIS, Oct 02 (AP): Having set a new Champions League record last time out, Erling Haaland is fast approaching another.
The Manchester City striker became the fastest player to score 50 goals in the competition with one against Napoli last month. His half-century came in his 49th appearance - smashing Ruud van Nistelrooy's record of 50 in 62 games.
Now Lionel Messi's record is in his sights and also looks certain to fall.
Messi is the fastest player to reach 60 goals in European club soccer's top competition. He managed it in 80 appearances. Haaland's double against Monaco on Wednesday means he is on 52 after just 50 games.
But the Norway international could not hide his frustration as City squandered victory by conceding a late penalty for a 2-2 draw.
"It isn't good enough," Haaland said. "We have to try to win the next game. It is the only thing we can do."
Haaland's goals twice gave City the lead at Stade Louis II.
He fired the visitors ahead in the 15th minute only for Jordan Teze to level the game three minutes later. Haaland struck again in the 44th, but when Nico Gonzalez was penalized for a high boot, Eric Dier converted from the spot. Haaland's latest goals extended his outstanding scoring run at the start of the season.
He is now on 17 goals in 10 games for club and country. City's 2-0 loss to Tottenham in August in the only game he hasn't managed to score in this term.
Maybe Paris Saint-Germain defender Achraf Hakimi was right after all when he said teammate Nuno Mendes is the best left back in the world right now.
In another match, Mendes sure looked like one of the best in the position on Wednesday, keeping star Barcelona forward Lamine Yamal at bay and assisting in one of PSG's goals in a 2-1 win over the Catalan club in the Champions League.
Hakimi, a right back who assisted in Gonçalo Ramos' 90th-minute winner for defending champion PSG, had said ahead of the game that Yamal "will be playing against the best left back in the world."
"He is capable of stopping Lamine," Hakimi said of Mendes, who was named man of the match.
Yamal got off to a promising start Wednesday, awing the crowd with a great run just minutes into the match at Montjuic stadium. But he couldn't do much more after that, with the 23-year-old Mendes containing him most of the time.
"I'm very pleased to see the younger players thriving in this match; learning, playing well, impressing our fans," PSG coach Luis Enrique coach said. "We consistently play rivals of a really high level. The most important thing for me is our DNA, our attitude - as a squad and as a club - and that's what we saw today."
The 18-year-old Yamal made his first start for Barcelona since August because of a pubic-area injury sustained while playing with Spain's national team during the international break in September. He came off the bench for the Catalan club in its 2-1 win against Real Sociedad in the Spanish league on Sunday.
It was a run by Mendes down the left side that led to Senny Mayulu's 38th-minute equalizer for PSG after Ferran Torres had put the hosts ahead in the 19th.
Yamal ended the match being shown a yellow card for a foul on Lucas Hernández.
PSG is the the first team to win three straight road games against Barcelona in major European competitions.