Erling Haaland scored his sixth hat-trick of the season as Manchester City swept Championship leaders Burnley aside in a 6-0 victory in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.
Just days after hitting five against RB Leipzig in the Champions League, the Norwegian added another match ball to his collection after a dominating performance.
Julian Alvarez netted a second-half brace either side of a Cole Palmer strike, ensuring a miserable return to Etihad Stadium for Clarets boss and former City captain Vincent Kompany.
It leaves City’s quest for a treble well and truly on, with an FA Cup semi-final now added to the schedule for Pep Guardiola’s side.
City dominated possession from the off but early opportunities were limited, though Haaland characteristically popped up to beat Bailey Peacock-Farrell to Alvarez’s through ball, tapping beneath the Burnley goalkeeper to open the scoring after 32 minutes.
The former Borussia Dortmund striker repeated the trick to double City’s lead, finding space at the far post to tuck home after Phil Foden’s driven ball across the face of goal, with just 179 seconds separating the two strikes.
Haaland secured his hat-trick before the hour mark with his easiest goal of the game, smashing into an empty net after Foden’s low drive bounced into his path off the right-hand post.
Three minutes later, City grabbed a fourth as Alvarez got in on the act, tapping home from close range after Kevin De Bruyne put the ball on a plate for the Argentine striker, with substitute Palmer adding another after Peacock-Farrell could only palm Foden’s cross into his path.
City were not done, Alvarez latching onto De Bruyne’s inviting through ball and turning Ameen Al Dakhil in the box before firing in his second and wrapping up another big win.
Manchester City player ratings
GK: Stefan Ortega – 5/10 – Looked nervous from the off, though Burnley weren’t able to capitalise on this.
CB: Kyle Walker – 7/10 – Galloped down the right flank to stretch play when in possession.
CB: Ruben Dias – 7/10 – Hardly troubled and was even afforded a rest with half an hour to go.
CB: Aymeric Laporte – 7/10 – Made good on what was a rare chance to impress Guardiola.
DM: Rico Lewis – 7/10 – Was a little shaky early on but grew into the game and Burnley didn’t know how to deal with him once Man City were in the ascendancy.
DM: Rodri – 7/10 – If anything was probably guilty of underestimating Burnley at first, but gave their midfield the runaround in the end.
RM: Riyad Mahrez – 8/10 – Calmly and casually weaved his way in and around Burnley bodies.
AM: Kevin De Bruyne – 9/10 – Back to his best, giving friend and former teammate Kompany a real nightmare on the touchline.
LM: Phil Foden – 10/10 – Everything he touched turned to gold.
CF: Erling Haaland – 10/10 – Just the six hat-tricks this season.
CF: Julian Alvarez – 10/10 – Would you believe Burnley’s fast start came courtesy of a really sloppy Alvarez performance? He managed to turn that around and then some. An outstanding display come full-time.
Substitutes
Cole Palmer (64′ for Haaland) – 7/10
Manuel Akanji (64′ for Dias) – 6/10
Sergio Gomez (66′ for Lewis) – 6/10
Kalvin Phillips (66′ for Rodri) – 6/10
Jack Grealish (89′ for De Bruyne) – N/A
Burnley player ratings
GK: Bailey Peacock-Farrell (4); RB: Connor Roberts (3), CB: Ameen Al Dakhil (3), CB: Louis Beyer (3), LB: Ian Maatsen (5); CM: Johann Berg Gudmundsson (3), CM: Josh Cullen (5), RM: Vitinho (5), AM: Nathan Tella (4), LM: Anass Zaroury (4); CF: Lyle Foster (5)
SUBS: Jack Cork (5), Ashley Barnes (5), Michael Obafemi (5), Charlie Taylor (N/A), Samuel Bastien (N/A)
