Man city 9-0 Burton Albion, ruthless city all but confirm EFL final place

Man City all but booked their place in the
EFL Cup final with a 9-0 demolition of
League One Burton Albion at the Etihad.

Gabriel Jesus scored four to lead the
thumping and make the second leg of this
semi-final, at the Pirelli Stadium in a
fortnight’s time, a mere formality.

Pep Guardiola clearly wanted the job done
tonight, and named a strong line-up, with no
room for Phil Foden , though Eric Garcia was
given a rare start at centre-back on his 18th
birthday.

Many of the Burton travelling contingent were delayed by traffic on the M6, and those
arriving any later than six minutes after kick
off would have missed Kevin De Bruyne
heading David Silva’s cross past Bradley
Collins to open the scoring.

First, Ilkay Gundogan’s brilliant through ball
fed Leroy Sane, and though his effort was
blocked by Collins, Jesus arrived to put away the rebound.

The Brazilian had his second soon after, with
Gundogan again instrumental in starting the
move with a chipped pass in behind to Silva.
VAR showed that the Spaniard was just onside as he cushioned into the path of Jesus, who found the net via the upright.

Jesus completed his hat-trick just before the
hour mark, heading home from Riyad
Mahrez’s floated cross, before Guardiola
introduced Foden in place of De Bruyne.

Mahrez added his name to the scoresheet
with a toe-poke that trickled past Collins’ tired dive for a ninth but Burton clung on to avoid the humiliation of double figures.