DRESSED UP TO THE NINES!
Jesus plunders four as Pep’s stars swagger towards Wembley
SO much for the romance of the cup. Three days after sticking seven past Rotherham in the FA Cup, Manchester City killed off their Carabao semi-final last night without the need for a second leg.
The holders go to Burton’s Pirelli Stadium in a fortnight not so much to finish the job as to go through a formality after a thoroughly ruthless display against the League One underdogs.
Credit to Pep Guardiola’s side for doing their work so effectively, and in particular Gabriel Jesus who scored four goals. David Silva was excellent again, too.
But after the narrow margins that separated Tottenham and Chelsea in the other semi 24 hours earlier, City exposed the gulf in class on a night that turned out exactly as Burton’s fans must have feared.
Traffic problems meant that some of the 3,000 travelling contingent still weren’t in the stadium when City went ahead after only five minutes. They might have wondered if it was worth the trouble as the Premier League champions raced into a four-goal lead by half-time before completing the biggest semi-final first leg win in the history of the competition.
A healthy smattering of empty blue seats around the Etihad suggested that City fans knew this one was unlikely to match the drama of their team’s seismic win over Liverpool here a week ago.
Having promised to take the cup competitions seriously, Guardiola made three outfield changes to the team that hammered Rotherham here on Sunday and they hardly weakened his line-up.
David Silva and Leroy Sane would strengthen just about any team in the world, while Eric Garcia made only his second senior start in central defence on his 18th birthday.
The young Spaniard wasn’t born until three years after Clough began his first stint as Burton boss in 1998, when he left City to become playermanager for the then non-League club.
Burton have enjoyed some special times in two spells under Clough since then, not least when they took Manchester United to an FA Cup replay in 2006. Clough has had even more success in this competition, having won it twice as a player with Nottingham Forest. This was his third League Cup semi-final, having lost to United with Derby in 2009 and Tottenham with Sheffield United in 2015 — the last time a League One team had made it to this stage of the competition. The chances of going one better against City were slim in the extreme, and Burton’s hopes were over by half-time as they found themselves four goals behind. The first took only five minutes to arrive. Ilkay Gundogan fed Silva in midfield and he picked out the run of Kevin De Bruyne (left) with the simplest of crosses. The Belgian accelerated through the heart of Burton’s defence and got in ahead of Reece Hutchinson to score with a rare header.
Clough sank back in his seat and wore the look of a man who knew he was in for two very long nights in this tie. To the League One club’s credit, they didn’t fold at that point and could easily have equalised seven minutes later.
Lucas Akins’ low pass across goal evaded everyone on its way through to the unmarked Marcus Myers-Harness.
He had time to take a touch before trying to beat City’s reserve goalkeeper Aro Muric, but took it on first time and steered his effort well over the bar from 15 yards.
MANCHESTER CITY showed no mercy to Burton Albion in last night’s Carabao Cup semi-final, thrashing the League One side by a record margin for the first leg of a League Cup tie at this stage of the competition. It was also the first time City have scored eight goals in a match since November 1987, when they defeated Huddersfield Town 10-1 in the old Second Division.
Pep Guardiola’s men led 4-0 at half-time and added another five after the break, with Gabriel Jesus scoring four times. Burton now face a nightmare second leg on January 23.