Man City vs Burnley Result: Final Score, Goals, Highlights & FA Cup Match Report

If it looked like a unique opportunity for an icon of Manchester City’s past, then it was just business as usual for their current idol. Vincent Kompany made his first competitive return to the Etihad Stadium since his sensational goal against Leicester in 2019 and his sudden departure. He returned to the ground with his statue outside and to the club he helped turn into ruthless winners.

And then, with little romance and typical ruthlessness, Erling Haaland condemned City’s greatest captain to his heaviest defeat as Burnley manager. For the Clarets, who lost 5-0 four times at the Etihad under Sean Dyche, it was an even tougher beating.

Kompany’s last act as a City player, the day before announcing his departure, was to win the FA Cup. With Pep Guardiola’s side in the semi-finals for the fifth time in six seasons, Ilkay Gundogan will join him in the select group of their FA Cup-winning skippers.

Haaland had broken a 94-year-old record for most goals in a season for City without finding the net in the FA Cup – to mitigate this he had only made one more league appearance – but he duly scored his sixth hat-trick of the campaign and second in four days. With 42 goals before the end of March, the Norwegian looks well on track to set the kind of marker that only one player can match in the future: himself in subsequent seasons.

In his last two games alone, he scored eight goals; that Bundesliga title contenders Leipzig got five against him suggests that Burnley fared well in comparison. The competitor in Kompany said he would have enjoyed the challenge from Haaland. His centre-backs may not have shared those sentiments and were probably relieved when Guardiola made the substitution of his top scorer with half an hour left.

Burnley have built a reputation as Championship city as they try to gain promotion. Guardiola’s influence is reflected on Kompany. And yet, if the score suggests that the master outsmarted the apprentice, the more prosaic reality might be that the senior man had Haaland. He changed the score with two goals in four minutes. In the second half, when they were rampant, it felt irrelevant that City had been unimpressive for the first half hour. Burnley had limited them to one shot, and even that wasn’t on target.

But goal scorers switch matches. Kompany played with the most prolific in City’s history, in Sergio Aguero, but Haaland strikes at a pace that even the Argentine could not cope with. His 42 goals have come in just 37 appearances.

The first, and most important, against Burnley came from an unconventional one-two. City beat the Clarets press when Stefan Ortega launched a long ball that Haaland headed to Julian Alvarez. He then cocked and ran for the back ball, firing his shot past Bailey Peacock-Farrell. As Leipzig can testify, he can make it two quickly and a supremely calm finish from the center of Phil Foden followed soon after. His third came off the rebound after Foden hit the post.

Alvarez tapped in fourth from Kevin de Bruyne’s low center and two days after signing a new contract, he doubled his tally after a sharp turn left defender Ameen Al-Dakhil on his back. The mentioned names Guardiola showed no mercy for Kompany. He kept Haaland and De Bruyne, while his seven changes include the return of World Cup winning striker Alvarez, plus generational talent Foden, who was involved in three goals.

The exception to the rule among the goalscorers was substitute Cole Palmer, who was left with a simple finish after goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell parried a Foden cross. By then, it felt like a footnote that the first save of the day came from Ortega, who Lyle Foster denied.

It was part of a bright start for the visitors, after a moment of enjoyment for their manager. Kompany, whose shock departure as a player deprived City fans of a chance to say goodbye, emerged to receive the applause from all four stands and hug Guardiola. Then he took on a sideline guard that may have gotten more and more painful; perhaps unsurprisingly, and the realist in Kompany had spoken of the huge gap between the top of the Premier League and the Championship top.

Even as a top team, Burnley tended to struggle against City. The aggregate score in their last 11 meetings now stands at 40-1. Dyche’s style of football rarely proved successful against City. Kompany’s Burnley has a different ethos. They tried to press high, man-marked in midfield and fouled. None of that mattered when Haaland started. As a player, Kompany enjoyed the times City scored six, especially in a Manchester derby. As a manager, he had less to celebrate.