IRELAND DEFENDER KEVIN Long scored an own goal on Saturday afternoon as Manchester City swept Burnley aside to maintain their fight for silverware on four fronts with a 5-0 FA Cup fourth-round triumph.
Pep Guardiola described talk of City winning the quadruple as “fantasy”, but it remains an attainable achievement for his side at the end of a week in which they reached the EFL Cup final.
Tougher tests will await than that presented by Burnley at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, with the visitors undone by a first-half strike from the in-form Gabriel Jesus and one apiece after the break from Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne, the latter being the pick of the bunch.
City also won October’s Premier League fixture here 5-0 and Sean Dyche’s side succumbed to the same fate as Long’s own goal and Sergio Aguero’s penalty completed the rout.
The most notable action of the first 12 minutes saw Kyle Walker break a corner flag as he attempted to deliver a cross, leading to a delay in the action as a replacement was sourced.
City should have taken the lead in the next attack, De Bruyne’s cross skidding underneath the outstretched leg of the onrushing Jesus.
Silva was next to come close as his side-footed effort was well kept out by an alert Nick Pope, who first parried then caught a subsequent strike from Danilo.
Having snapped the flagstick, Walker’s next target was Steven Defour, the England full-back receiving a yellow card for his mistimed challenge on the Belgian.
The breakthrough followed soon after as Jesus cut in from the left side of the area and finished with confidence past Pope for his eighth goal in five matches.
Burnley wasted a glorious opportunity to equalise within three minutes of the restart when Nicolas Otamendi was caught in possession, but Matej Vydra fired wide with only Ederson to beat.
Dyche’s men paid the price when Silva’s deflected shot doubled City’s lead after collecting a pass from De Bruyne, who then lashed in the goal of the match from 25 yards out.
A fine outing from De Bruyne was capped when his cross was turned into his own net by Long, whose mix-up with Pope led to the spot-kick from which Aguero converted.
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Tough blow to lose so many important players. Molony and Penny were two of the stars of the 6 Nations while Byrne and Hackshaw were key playmakers at 10 and 12 with Hacksahw being the captain. I’d fancy Allison to come into the backrow instead of Molony without too much drop off in quality as he might have started if he’d been fit for the 6 Nations. Replacing Penny is nigh on impossible but Healy and French/Moore will do a fine job coming in at 10 and 12. The issue will be the lack of depth now we’re down some big players and guys having so many big games in such a short period of time.
Its concerning the amount of serious injuries in a young squad like that already
One “IQ” player is that a good return should there be more
@Exiled Dub: why should there be more?
also Iwan Hughes is a IQ rugby product who is with Ulster now.
I wonder how the other home countries are getting on, say England next week ?? Do we have the worst list ???)
@Martin Quinn: A few injuries and also the unavailability of #10 Marcus Smith because he’s playing for England development XV vs the Barbarians ! A disappointing priority for the rest of the squad, I imagine.
See https://www.englandrugby.com/news/england-men-u20s-squad-update/
@Martin Quinn: No mention of Australian injuries here:
https://www.rugby.com.au/news/2019/05/07/world-u20-championships-junior-wallabies-squad
They beat NZ 24-0 in a final recently !
@Martin Quinn: Italy had to omit 3 injured players who were “more or less important”. See:
https://www.federugby.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=112&Itemid=427
So my guess is that our missing 5, 6, 7, 10 and 12 represent the greatest omissions in our group.
Ah well, cometh the hour, cometh the man …
@Martin Quinn: https://u20rugby.wordpress.com if you’re interested keep an eye on this
@Glenbower:
Thanks for that :: Glen
@Eddie Hekenui:
Thanks for that :: EDDIE