Eat up the ground to leave the defence in his wake

[Kontol]

I have difficulty understasing the following phrase. Does it mean to move fast to send the defennce the wrong way?

GOAL! West Ham 0-2 Man City (HAALAND, 65 mins)

Lethal. Absolutely lethal!
Kevin de Bruyne has time to look up and play Erling Haaland in on goal, he eats up the ground to leave the defence in his wake and then just rolls in left-footed as easy as you like. All of a sudden he's on a debut hat-trick.

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[Tarheel]

He's moving more quickly than the defense. He's outmaneuvering them and and catching them out of position.

That's really not your game, is it?

 

[jutfrank]

he eats up the ground = he advances very quickly

to leave the defence in his wake = to create the situation where the defenders are chasing him in the direction of their own goal