Match Recap: Blues Thump Clarets Again

Manchester City strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup after another goal romp at the Etihad Stadium.

Goals from Gabriel Jesus, Bernardo Silva, Kevin de Bruyne and Sergio Aguero were added to by a Burnley own goal to make it an incredible 12 goals in this season’s competition already, and thirty in total in just seven games.

City beat Burnley by the same scoreline in October, with Silva and Aguero also on the scoresheet and the blues also knocked the Clarets out of last season’s competition at the third round stage, when City came back from a goal down at half time to win 4-1.

City left names such as Sterling, Sane, Aguero and Laporte on the bench, and they were joined by Phil Foden, who completed 90 minutes at Burton on Wednesday, and the blues were in no mood to allow Burnley even a sniff of a surprise result and took the lead in the 23^rd minute. Danilo’s ball into space found Jesus, who then evaded the Burnley defenders in the penalty area before driving home the opening goal. That’s the way it stayed until half-time and, just like in October, the blues went in 1-0 up at the break.

Burnley had a glorious chance to equalise three minutes into the second half. Nicolas Otamendi gave the ball away to Matej Vydra and the Czech Republic international was clear with only Ederson to beat, but fired his shot woefully wide.

Burnley were to rue that missed chance as Bernardo Silva made it 2-0. City’s passing game had Burnley stretched and de Bruyne’s ball into the box released the Portugese midfielder, whose shot was fumbled by Nick Pope and fell into the net for City’s second.

That goal effectively secured City’s passage into the fifth round, and some critics will no doubt have demanded the bleus to stop scoring, but de Bruyne made it 3-0 nine minutes later. The Belgian picked the ball up on the edge of the penalty area and rifled his shot through the Burnley players and into the bottom corner.

City were in complete control and on 73 minutes, it was 4-0. De Bruyne raced into the box on the right and his cross to the waiting Jesus never reached him, as defender Kevin Long got in the way and deflected the ball into his own net for an unfortunate own goal.

The blues continued in their search for more goals and a fifth duly arrived from the penalty spot. The Burnley defence dithered as the defender waited for Pope to collect and David Silva attempted to steal in, only to be prevented from doing so by the outstretched arm of the defender. The referee awarded a spot kick to City, which Aguero calmly put away for number five.

The only sour note for City on an otherwise great performance was the loss of one of the corner flags, which was sadly broken by Kyle Walker in the first half, leading to a lengthy delay until a replacement was found and put in situ. The club later updated supporters via Twitter of the flag’s retirement from duty.

Final Score: Manchester City 5-0 Burnley

Goals: Jesus (23)