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Erling Haaland scored another hat-trick as Manchester City beat Vincent Kompany’s Burnley 6-0 to progress to the FA Cup semi-finals.
The prolific Norwegian followed his haul of five goals against RB Leipzig on Tuesday with his sixth hat-trick of the season as City ruthlessly put the Clarets to the sword at the Etihad Stadium.
World Cup winner Julian Alvarez celebrated his new contract with a brace and 20-year-old Cole Palmer also went on the scoresheet as the former City Kompany captain endured a miserable return to his old ground.
Much of the pre-match build-up involved Kompany, who won 10 major trophies in a glittering playing career with City and has a statue outside the stadium.
Naturally, he received a great reception from the home fans, but his former club showed him no niceties and, by the final whistle, the headlines were once again on Haaland.
The 22-year-old has scored an impressive 42 goals in 37 appearances in all competitions this season.
Burnley, the league’s runaway leaders, got off to a confident start and Stefan Ortega was almost caught out when he was shoved in a pass and gave the ball away to Ian Maatsen.
Rico Lewis raced back to stave off danger and Ortega made amends moments later when he parried a long-range shot from Nathan Tella.
Yet as uncomfortable as City seemed at times in their own half, they were confident and skilled at the other end.
Burnley escaped when Haaland misdirected a header from Phil Foden’s cross and it took a good tackle from Jordan Beyer to prevent Alvarez’s shot.
Such was City’s quality that they could punish Burnley at any moment and a quick brace from Haaland just after the half-hour mark took the game past the Clarets.
Haaland was fed on the edge of the box by Alvarez and, although Bailey Peacock-Farrell stormed out, he instinctively pushed the ball past the keeper.
It was a smart ending, but his next few moments later were even sweeter.
This time Foden was the supplier after a charge on the left. His low ball in the box arched invitingly for Haaland and he lifted it accurately to Peacock-Farrell.
Burnley tried to respond and Maatsen forced a fine save from Ortega just before the break, but City and Haaland weren’t in the mood to give in.
Peacock-Farrell blocked a volley from Riyad Mahrez and then cleared a shot from Haaland, but couldn’t stop the tide for long.
Haaland completed his hat-trick just before the hour mark when, as usual, he was in the right place at the right time to pounce on a rebound after Foden hit the post.
He gave Peacock-Farrell no chance as he went home and the score quickly became 4-0 as Kevin De Bruyne came into the box and set up for Alvarez to touch home.
As it was midweek, Haaland was taken off in the 63rd minute. That means his contribution for the week was eight goals in just 126 minutes of action.
There was still no respite for Burnley when Foden’s cross was thrust into Palmer’s path and the substitute came on.
The sixth came shortly after when Alvarez ran into a through ball from De Bruyne and spun inside Ameen Al-Dakhil to batter home.
City have gone through the last few minutes and can now look forward to another trip to Wembley next month.
Read more: Erling Haaland: Ridiculous stats after his decent start to Man City life
