All the talk in the Sky interviews that followed the 5-3 victory over FC Augsburg revolved around new signing Erling Haaland, who notched a hat-trick on his debut.

"He is very calm, but very ambitious," said captain Marco Reus of his new team-mate. "Erling trains incredibly hard. I think the last guy to make his debut in Augsburg was Auba, and he scored three goals too. If it becomes the same kind of success story, I'd be all for that. Erling is making a good impression and he got off to a superb start today."

Lucien Favre said: "Erling has settled in well and immediately showed his strengths by making runs in behind. He moves very well between the lines and offers us other possibilities in our attacking play. We played Gio Reyna too. He was very good. It was a crazy match. We should've already been ahead in the first period. But rather than taking the lead, we lost the first half 1-0 instead. We switched to a back four because the opposition was leading and we absolutely wanted to win. We had to take greater risks at that point. We did well in that respect. We started to attack after that. We know that we have the abilities to make an impact [going forward]."

And what about Erling Haaland himself? He might have made a real impact on the pitch, but he remained reserved in the aftermath. Carrying the match ball, which he took home with him as a memento, under his arm, the forward said he had had a "good debut" and simply added: "I'm happy." Perhaps he'll be granted even longer to showcase his abilities in Cologne on Friday. In any case, the striker emphasised that he is fit.

Christina Reinke