{"id":512777,"date":"2026-04-04T16:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T16:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/512777\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T16:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T16:00:12","slug":"erling-haaland-hits-hat-trick-as-manchester-city-thrash-liverpool-to-reach-fa-cup-semis-fa-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/512777\/","title":{"rendered":"Erling Haaland hits hat-trick as Manchester City thrash Liverpool to reach FA Cup semis | FA Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Erling Haaland swept the ball home for a first Manchester City<\/a> hat-trick since August 2024 it sent swathes of Liverpool fans for the exits. Only 57 minutes were gone yet City were cruising at 4-0 and Arne Slot\u2019s men were being schooled.<\/p>\n

Haaland\u2019s third, in which J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku and Nico O\u2019Reilly walked the ball through Liverpool<\/a> before the No 9 hooked in off the bar, epitomised the pathetic response to the striker\u2019s 39th-minute penalty opener.<\/p>\n

Until then those in red went toe-to-toe with their hosts, Hugo Ekitik\u00e9 (twice) and Mohamed Salah spurning chances. Yet after the break the chronically impotent Salah missed two more early chances before failing where Haaland prospered \u2013 from the spot: at 4-0 down, the Egyptian steered the ball to James Trafford\u2019s left, City\u2019s goalkeeper parried and Liverpool\u2019s misery deepened further.<\/p>\n

The beleaguered Slot knows this heaviest defeat handed to his Liverpool side damages his job prospects, because next is Wednesday\u2019s date at the European champions, Paris Saint-Germain. If they go down in similar manner in the Champions League quarter-final, then the owners may have a decision to make.<\/p>\n

Erling Haaland scores Manchester City\u2019s fourth goal to complete his hat-trick. Photograph: Phil Noble\/Reuters<\/p>\n

For Pep Guardiola all is wine and roses. This first outing since downing Arsenal in the Carabao Cup final<\/a> ended in extending City\u2019s record to an eighth consecutive FA Cup semi-final \u2013 one more phenomenal statistic in a slew returned by a phenomenon of a manager.<\/p>\n

Yet Liverpool, themselves eight time Cup-winners whose last triumph was in 2022, began brightly, Florian Wirtz and Ekitik\u00e9 combining for the German to shoot. Next, Dominik Szoboszlai spun a free-kick on to Ibrahima Konat\u00e9\u2019s head and Trafford saved.<\/p>\n

Guardiola, in a posh seat because of a two-game touchline ban, instructed his front four of Antoine Semenyo, Rayan Cherki, Haaland and Doku to press high when Giorgi Mamardashvili restarted from Liverpool\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n

City\u2019s formation was a familiar 4-2-3-1, Liverpool\u2019s a curio of a nominal 4-4-2, with Ekitik\u00e9 and Salah as a split front two and Wirtz invited to join them centrally.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Slot\u2019s thinking was seen when a downfield Mamardashvili punt put Salah in on the left \u2013 from close in his effort was deflected to safety by Abdukodir Khusanov.<\/p>\n

At this point the contest was contested in a wall of noise and when Cherki feinted in Liverpool\u2019s area and went down as Milos Kerkez challenged him, City\u2019s scream for a penalty further upped the febrile atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Now came Ekitik\u00e9 crashing the ball over after Rodri handed it to him. This would haunt Liverpool. So, too, Virgil van Dijk\u2019s miss when Joe Gomez\u2019s flighted delivery landed at the captain\u2019s feet plum before Trafford\u2019s posts: instead of pulling the trigger he turned possession back, and City escaped.<\/p>\n

What came next was poorer from Van Dijk. When O\u2019Reilly received the ball in Liverpool\u2019s area, the Dutchman hooked his right foot around the left-back and felled him. It was easy for Michael Oliver to award a penalty despite the usual \u2013 and surely performative, in this case \u2013 protestations. Haaland beat Mamardashvili to the keeper\u2019s left and celebrated with a playful kick of the right corner flag.<\/p>\n

Haaland\u2019s second, in first-half added time, closed a sweet City sequence. Matheus Nunes fed Cherki, whose tap for Semenyo was simple \u2013 and devastating. The Ghanaian\u2019s cross was flicked by Haaland into Mamardashvili\u2019s right side-netting and it was 2-0 City, Oliver blowing for the refreshments seconds later.<\/p>\n

Mohamed Salah reacts after James Trafford saved his penalty with Liverpool 4-0 down. Photograph: Mike Egerton\/PA<\/p>\n

Liverpool were impotent, Salah\u2019s first appearance since announcing his departure<\/a> close to a nonevent. What could Slot do? If he ordered his team to up tempo and intent, it made zero difference because City scored again, five minutes into the second period.<\/p>\n

This was shambolic from Liverpool. Gomez\u2019s throw-in went straight to Marc Gu\u00e9hi, who found O\u2019Reilly, who relayed to the effervescent Cherki. Semenyo was played in and, as Mamardashvili advanced, the winger\u2019s left-footed deft lob was sublime.<\/p>\n

Soon after, Salah skewed wide, a second miss of the half so far and the fourth in all of a depressing display \u2013 by him and the storied team he has graced for the past nine seasons.<\/p>\n

When Cherki was taken off he briefly put on the also-substituted Ekitik\u00e9\u2019s shirt (they are friends). He waved in apology but it mattered not as he and City were supreme all day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Erling Haaland swept the ball home for a first Manchester City hat-trick since August 2024 it sent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-512777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}