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| Norway star Arling Holland | Photo: Twitter |
Norway's match against Spain next Saturday. He had already suffered a groin injury. He was expected to recover before this match. But it turned out that the injury was quite serious. Not only Spain, Holland will also miss the match against Georgia on Tuesday.
Norwegian team doctor Ola Sand said, "We had hoped that Holland's injury would be healed before Saturday." But it turned out that it was not possible for him to play two matches against Spain and Georgia. For now it will be better to treat him at the club.
Holland's name is not in the Norway squad, his club Manchester City will be happy. City's match against Liverpool on April 1. City hope that Holland will recover before that match.
Holland joined Manchester City in 2022 from Borussia Dortmund. In this season, he played 37 matches in the City jersey and scored 42 goals. Among them, he scored 28 goals in the Premier League and 10 in the Champions League.
The FA Cup and League Cup together have 4 more. So far he has scored a hat trick in 6 matches. Scored 21 goals in 23 matches for the Norwegian national team.
5 days, 2 matches, 126 minutes, 8 goals
Incredible! Nah, the word didn't fit right. What Earling Holland is doing on the football field cannot be explained by any adjective. He scored his second hat trick in 5 days. The number of goals in the last two matches is 8. Anyone can raise the question whether Holland is a machine or superhuman.
And on a night where Holland became superhuman, Manchester City saw another big win. City thrashed Championship leaders Burnley 6-0 in the quarter-finals of the the Emirates FA Cup. Julian Alvarez scored a brace alongside Holland's hat-trick, with Palmer scoring the other goal.
In Man City's previous match, Man City blew away 7-0 against Leipzig in the second leg of the last sixteen of the Champions League. Holland alone scored 5 goals in that match.
Holland was on the field for only 63 minutes that day. Picked up where he left off that day against Burnley. Last night, Pep Guardiola took him down in those 63 minutes. Which means, he played 8 goals in 126 minutes in two matches!
Holland opened the scoring by fooling the goalkeeper in the 32nd minute at the Etihad. After 3 minutes, he showed his finishing magic again. This Norwegian striker connected the ball to Phil Foden's pass. Goal again in 59 minutes. Holland collected his second hat-trick in 5 days when Foden's shot came back off the post and the return ball went into the net. This is his sixth hat-trick in all competitions this season.
Holland has scored 42 goals in all competitions this season. Holland is just 2 goals away from the Premier League goalscoring record.
Only two players in the Premier League have more goals in a season across all competitions - Ruud von Nistelrooy and Mohamed Salah. Both scored 44 goals each. It is only a matter of time before Salah and Nistelrooy rise to the top.
Burnley coach Vincent Kompany was full of praise for Holland despite the narrow defeat. He said, 'He is in the right place to improve himself. He will do better here (at City). He got the right coach.
