BURTON STUNNED AS CITY HIT NINE
GABRIEL JESUS LEADS THE WAY WITH FOUR GOALS IN FIRST LEG MASSACRE
Gabriel Jesus struck four goals as Manchester City powered towards the Carabao Cup final with a ruthless 9-0 demolition of League One Burton at the Etihad Stadium.
The tone for a one-sided semi-final first leg was set as Kevin De Bruyne opened the scoring after just five minutes, with Jesus adding two and Oleksandr Zinchenko another before the break.
Jesus grabbed two more in a 13-minute second-half blitz that also saw Phil Foden and Kyle Walker hit the target before Riyad Mahrez completed the scoring late on.
It was City’s biggest win since they thrashed Huddersfield 10-1 in 1987 and ensured the second leg will be a formality.
By the end it was cruel on Burton and their fans, many of whom had endured an arduous journey to get to the game.
There were even some suggestions kick-off could be delayedafterhundredsofapproximately 3,000 travelling fans were caught up in traffic following a police incident on the M6 in Staffordshire.
By the scheduled 7.45pm start, however, the vast majority did appear to have made it inside the stadium although they may soon have been wishing they had not.
Pep Guardiola, who fielded a strong side as City ruthlessly disposed of Rotherham in the FA Cup on Sunday, again showed no intention of going easy and sent out a number of his big guns.
Guardiola said: “The result was good and of course we are already in the final but we have to play the second leg. We will take it seriously. Burton have had an incredible tournament. They have to be so proud, they did so well.
“Strikers need to score goals, Gabriel Jesus has had chances in the last few games and today he has scored. He is so important.
“It is not easy to play this type of game against a lower team. We made good runs in behind and we took it seriously. After the second and third goal it was easier, we were faster and quicker.
“I am off for a glass of wine with Nigel Clough. I know how important his father was for English football, he was a genius. Incredible. It will be a pleasure to share some minutes with him.”
Clough Jr said: “We didn’t expect anything less with the gulf between the two teams. We thought it could have been more. We didn’t too much wrong. With two or three of the goals we could have done more but we didn’t do too badly.
“We have made history in getting this far. It wasn’t about tonight, it was about the achievement of getting here. We kept going right to the end.”