Jesus ends Nigel’s miracle dream
£3,000-a-week. A decade ago the Brewers, whose highest attendance this season is
4,566, were in the Blue Square Premier taking on the likes of Histon and Eastbourne.
In contrast the hosts are hot on the heels of Liverpool in the title race and have spent more than half-a-billion pounds on new signings since Guardiola took charge – including a club record £60m on Mahrez last summer.
The current holders were in their 11th League Cup semi-final, while it was the Brewers’ first ever.
No wonder Clough admitted in the build-up he was too frightened to spend time thinking about facing City – because his side had no genuine chance of beating them.
But despite their modest credentials compared to the home side, the Brewers deserved to be on the big stage, having beaten Burnley, Aston Villa and Middlesbrough to get this far.
One radio phone-in even came up with some novel ideas before kick-off about how City could make the game a fairer contest, including playing without a goalkeeper, allowing the Brewers an extra man or lending them Raheem Sterling.
Sterling was available, to be fair, because he wasn’t even needed in the City starting eleven named by Guardiola, who at least went easy on his opponents by only naming nine full internationals.
But this didn’t stop the visitors from standing up to their illustrious hosts and it took them just 12 seconds to register a shot at goal when Lucas Atkins tried his luck but failed to generate enough power.
Normal service was resumed inside five minutes, though, as City took the lead to make the perfect start when De Bruyne met David Silva’s cross to power a header past Bradley Collins.
The slaughter had begun, but the visitors should have equalised on 12 minutes when the unmarked Marcus Myers-Harness blazed over the bar at the back post.
Jesus then scored twice in four minutes before the break and Zinchenko added a fourth with a cross that deceived Collins and looped into the top corner.
Mahrez set-up Jesus for his hat-trick on 57 minutes, Foden added a sixth and then Walker and Mahrez himself joined in the fun as the goals kept flowing and the Brewers drooped.
MANCHESTER CITY (4-3-3): Muric; Walker (Danilo 75), Otamendi, Garcia, Zinchenko; Gundogan, D Silva, De Bruyne (Foden 58); Sane (B Silva 66), Jesus, Mahrez. Subs: Ederson, Stones, Sterling, Delph.
BURTON (4-5-1): Collins; Brayford, Turner, Buxton, Harness; Wallace, Fraser (Sbarra 79), Allen (Fox 68), Akins, Hutchinson; Boyce (Templeton 68). Subs: Bywater, McFadzean, McCrory, Miller.
Referee: Mike Dean.