Erling Haaland scores five as Manchester City destroy Luton in FA Cup

By Sports Desk February 27, 2024

Erling Haaland scored five of Manchester City’s six goals in a superb individual display as the FA Cup holders thrashed Luton at Kenilworth Road to progress to the quarter-finals.

City’s top scorer made it 27 for the season despite having missed almost two months with a foot injury, driving his team on to a ruthless 6-2 victory, though the win owed as much to the excellent Kevin De Bruyne, architect of four of his team-mate’s goals.

Mateo Kovacic also scored with a worthy strike of his own late on after Jordan Clark had netted either side of the interval to haul Luton from three down to within a single goal. In truth, though, they never really got close to City.

Pep Guardiola’s side were irresistible in the first half, ripping through Luton from all angles with De Bruyne and Haaland at their electric best. It took under three minutes to make their breakthrough.

Manuel Akanji brought it out of defence and fed Matheus Nunes ahead of him on the left. Nunes stood up Amari’i Bell and played a clever reverse pass that split Luton’s back line and ran through to De Bruyne, and he raised his glance to see Haaland waiting to wrap his left boot around the ball and thump it home from 10 yards.

Luton’s Teden Mengi had competed well with Haaland, matching him for power and strength in one-on-one duels, but after 18 minutes the City striker won out and doubled his side’s lead. De Bruyne again was the creator, receiving it from Haaland on halfway and returning it into the Norwegian’s stride. He burst beyond Mengi and crashed it through the legs of Tim Krul with unerring cool.

His hat-trick nearly arrived soon after, a ball threaded through at pace by John Stones finding his run, but this time Krul raced out and blocked. Nunes was next to go close, thrashing wide at the near post after finding space inside the box.

City threatened to run riot. De Bruyne hit a low volley brilliantly beaten out by the right arm of Krul, who was rewarded with good fortune on the rebound when Haaland’s follow-up landed in his gloves.

Luton wanted offside for Haaland’s third, but VAR showed he had timed his run off the shoulder substitute Joe Johnson expertly. The finish, chipped over Krul as he advanced, oozed confidence.

It looked like being a near-perfect half for Guardiola, marred only by the loss of Jack Grealish just before the break to injury.

Then out of nothing, Luton brought a roar from home fans on the stroke of the interval, a brilliant finish sent spinning into Stefan Ortega’s top corner from 25 yards by Clark.

They came at City at the start of the second half with the same ferocity with which the holders had begun the match, and they were rewarded similarly early. Clark was closer to goal this time though the angle was devilish. A shot across the goalkeeper looked to be on, but instead he lashed it towards the near post and beyond Ortega for 3-2.

It gave Kenilworth Road all of three minutes to dream. That was all it took for Haaland to score his and his team’s fourth, De Bruyne again the provider as he squared for a simple tap-in.

His fifth was harsh on Krul, a left-foot drive squirming through the goalkeeper as though bamboozled by City’s dizzying onslaught. Haaland had scored five in under an hour.

Kovacic added his name to the scoresheet, rifling one in in the 72nd minute to deepen Luton’s misery.

There was at least late respite when Haaland was brought off in the closing stages. It had been his and City’s night.

Related items

  • Brighton 2-1 Manchester City: O'Riley condemns visitors to fourth consecutive loss Brighton 2-1 Manchester City: O'Riley condemns visitors to fourth consecutive loss

    Premier League debutant Matt O'Riley proved Brighton's hero as he completed a comeback in a 2-1 win over Manchester City at the Amex Stadium.

    The substitute returned from injury with a bang as he condemned Pep Guardiola to a fourth successive defeat in all competitions for the first time in his managerial career.

    Erling Haaland had given City a deserved lead in the first half, but they were pegged back by another substitute in Joao Pedro in the 78th minute.

    O'Riley then piled the misery on their visitors with a composed finish five minutes later, ensuring Fabian Hurzeler's side – who were on the wrong end of a comeback against Liverpool last time out – came out on top.

    It is a win that lifts Brighton to fourth in the table, while second-placed City missed the chance to go top, and sit two points behind Liverpool, who play Aston Villa later on Saturday.

    Data Debrief: Uncharted territory

    City are so used to writing history given their success in recent years, but they are making headlines for the wrong reasons this time around. 

    As stated before, Guardiola has lost four games in a row for the first time as a manager, but it is also the first time City have suffered four consecutive defeats since August 2006.

    After a barren (by his standards) spell for Haaland, who had not scored in two appearances, he has lost a Premier League game in which he has scored for the very first time (W40 D6 previously).

    Take nothing away from Brighton though. They are now unbeaten across their first six Premier League home games of the season (W3 D3), their best such start to a top-flight campaign since 1982-83 (seven home games without defeat).

  • O'Neil heaps praise on Cunha after Wolves' first Premier League win O'Neil heaps praise on Cunha after Wolves' first Premier League win

    Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Gary O'Neil was full of praise for Matheus Cunha after his side earned their first Premier League win of the season with a 2-0 defeat of Southampton. 

    The Brazilian attacker's delightful pass had allowed Pablo Sarabia to open the scoring at Molineux with only one minute and 48 seconds on the clock. 

    It was Wolves' fastest-ever Premier League goal, eclipsing Matt Jarvis’ strike against Blackpool in February 2011 (1:56).

    But Cunha did not stop there as he wrote his name on the scoresheet with a stunning strike from distance to put Wolves two to the good six minutes into the second half. 

    "Cunha is huge for us. He has such ability but he is one of those players who drifts and takes up positions," O'Neil told BBC Sport after the game. 

    "We work very hard on him - on how it is to be a trusted team player when we don't have the ball. He's worked very hard on it after I spoke harshly to him after Brentford away.

    "It's a big win for us and Cunha had a big say in it."

  • Bournemouth deserved to topple Brentford in thriller, claims Iraola Bournemouth deserved to topple Brentford in thriller, claims Iraola

    Andoni Iraola was insistent that Bournemouth "didn't deserve to lose" as a 3-2 defeat at Brentford saw them travel back to the south coast with nothing to show for a decent performance.

    Bournemouth had taken the lead twice, first through Evanilson and then Justin Kluivert, but could not hold on either time.

    Yoane Wissa's brace and a goal from Mikkel Damsgaard handed Brentford the three points, as the Bees bounced back from their late capitulation to Fulham on Monday.

    Iraola's team had the better of the chances, creating 2.6 expected goals (xG) to Brentford's 1.5, and the Spaniard felt the result was not a reflection of Bournemouth's display.

    "I don't think we deserved to lose today. I think we were better for most of the game. Probably, they've been more efficient than us in the key moments, and they've made the difference," Iraola told BBC Radio Solent.

    "We had very, very clear chances to score. We played really well again. The problem is when you lose, people always say, 'No, but you lost.' Against Everton [a 3-2 win in August], we played much worse, but we won, and it looks much different.

    "Overall, we've been the better team, especially in the first half. I was very happy with the performance in the first half.

    "We hit the crossbar at the end, and I think there was a clear penalty to Evanilson to score and make it 3-3, but we couldn’t do it."

    Bournemouth's Brazilian striker Evanilson netted his third goal in as many games, making him the first Bournemouth player to score in three successive league games since Dominic Solanke in December last year.

    Evanilson had shouts for a penalty denied on the hour mark after it appeared Ethan Pinnock had caught his leg, and Iraola was not satisfied with the explanation he received from the officials.

    "They tell us he kicks himself, but he kicks himself because he was kicked. To me, it is very clear and obvious, but to them, they don't think so," he explained.

    Thomas Frank concurred with Iraola's assessment of the visitor's strong first-half performance but praised his side's fightback.

    "The bounce-back mentality was unbelievably good. Maybe even more impressive than if we had won 3-0 because we actually played badly in the first 20 minutes. Bournemouth were better than us," he told Sky Sports.

    "We gave them clearly the first goal and then one or two other chances. But after that goal we stepped up and we found some of that great bounce-back mentality."

    While Brentford are scoring plenty, they have shipped 12 goals in their last five games, though Frank is keen to focus on the positives.

    "The positive is that we are a very dangerous team going forward," he said.

    "We must be up there [as a team that's scored the most goals]. That is incredible. We are Brentford. I think that is insanely good. I think people don't understand how good it is.

    "But of course, I am also very ambitious and I would love us to win 3-0 today."

© 2024 SportsMaxTV All Rights Reserved.