MATCH REPORT: MANCHESTER CITY 3 – 1 BURNLEY

Clarets fall to defeat at the Etihad

Manchester City ran out winners against Burnley in Wednesday night’s Premier League encounter.

Always a challenging fixture in the calendar, the Clarets battled hard against a strong home side who led 3-0 through an Alvarez brace and Rodri strike, until added time in the 90 when Al-Dakhil netted his first goal for the Club.

The Clarets arrived in Manchester – in torrential rain! However, come kick-off the skies cleared and Vincent Kompany’s side faced last season’s treble winners.

From the starting whistle, Manchester City enjoyed plenty of possession as the Clarets aimed to find their feet.

De Bruyne came close to opening the scoring when his free-kick from a Nunes foul flew just over the bar having come off Brownhill. Trafford who was set for a busy night – kept any danger at bay collecting the resulting corner.

The opener came on the 16th minute when Julian Alvarez headed home from a Nunes cross. The striker was well positioned to place his header past Trafford in the Clarets goal to put the home team in front.

Behind, Hjalmar Ekdal picked up the first yellow card of the game not too long after for a foul on De Bruyne. The midfielder showed his class when he cleverly played the free-kick to Alvarez who glided past the Clarets backline and Trafford to net his second of the evening.

The goal became the 50th goal Manchester City have scored against Burnley in the Premier League and made the challenge trickier for Vincent Kompany’s men.

Burnley responded positively though keeping plenty of numbers in the box as they aimed to withstand the pressure. Trafford was kept relatively busy and made a good save from another De Bruyne free-kick not too long before half-time and O’Shea showed his pace clearing the danger of a Doku cross which was later called as offside.

The half-time whistle brought some rest bite and with neither side making any changes the game restarted. However it wasn’t the start to the second 45 that the Clarets were looking for, Phil Foden surged forward and found Rodri who fired past Trafford to increase City’s lead to 3-0 within 25 seconds of the restart.

The Clarets remain focussed on the task at hand though and Amdouni had a chance when good work from Ekdal and Gudmundsson resulted in the Swiss international getting a run at goal, however his shot travelled over.

On the 57th minute, Kompany made a triple change, with Connor Roberts, Aaron Ramsey and David Fofana replacing Zeki Amdouni, Johann Berg Gudmudnsson and Lyle Foster.

It was January signing Fofana’s first appearance for the club as he lead the attack for the remainder of the game.

Nice work by the new man early on saw him do well to find Berge and subsequently Captain Brownhill who managed to get a shot away, however it was a comfortable save for Ederson.

Kompany lauded his players when Berge again drove through midfield, his positive run found Al-Dakhil and Brownhill who despite some nice touches in the box didn’t manage to test City’s keeper.

Both managers made a change with 15 to go, Wilson Odobert made way for Anass Zaroury while Erling Haaland made his return taking the place of Phil Foden.

Zaroury got straight into the action, when he was fouled by Doku, who picked up a yellow for the challenge, Burnley did well to keep the ball alive in the box and Berge’s resulting effort was saved.

With five minutes to go Han-Noah Massengo replaced Ekdal as the Clarets aimed to see out the game under sustained pressure from the home side.

Five additional minutes saw the tempo remain high and Fofana did well when he cut inside and found Al-Dakhil in the box, who tapped home his first goal for Burnley.

At 3-1 as the clock ticked down the full-time whistle went and the Clarets now turn their attention to Saturday’s game on home turf against Fulham.

Burnley: Trafford, O’Shea, Gudmundsson (Ramsey 57), Brownhill, Berge, Foster (Fofana 57), Ekdal (Massengo 86), Vitinho, Amdouni (Roberts 57), Al-Dakhil, Odobert (Zaroury 75)

Unused substitutes: Muric, Cork, Cullen, Bruun Larsen

Manchester City: Ederson, Stones, Ake, Doku, Rodri (Kovacic 86), De Bruyne (Haaland 70), Alvarez (Gomez 86), Gvardiol, Nunes, Foden (Grealish 75), Lewis

Unused substitutes: Ortega, Walker, Dias, Silva, Bobb

Goals: Alvarez 16′, 22′ Rodri 46′, Al-Dakhil 90+3