Manchester City are safely through to the FA Cup quarter-finals after thumping Luton Town 6-2 at Kenilworth Road – and Erling Haaland left ITV pundits Roy Keane and Ian Wright absolutely amazed as he scored five goals.
Tonight had the potential to be a banana skin for City.
Luton gave City a good game in this same fixture earlier in the season in the Premier League, with City running out 2-1 winners.
But City were simply superb tonight, with Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne utterly unplayable.
The duo combined three times in the first-half, with the Belgian assisting City’s number nine all three times.
They also combined for another goal in the second-half.
Haaland has actually had his critics recently, but tonight he was much more clinical and Luton defender Teden Mengi had a very tough evening in the end. He didn’t even do too badly, it was more that Haaland just couldn’t be contained.
Roy Keane and Ian Wright rave over ‘world-class’ Erling Haaland after stunning performance for Manchester City against Luton
Some were a little surprised that Haaland actually started tonight’s game.
Given the fairly quick turnaround, some fans felt Pep Guardiola might have rotated the Norwegian to the bench for this game, especially since Julian Alvarez did not start against Bournemouth at the weekend.
But Haaland did start, and he ran riot.
His finishing was much better this evening, and the power and strength he showed against Mengi was just scary.
Roy Keane and Ian Wright were both left extremely impressed, as they analysed him at half-time. Keane said on ITV: “Simple, effective, brilliant. Tough on Luton, but they’re just up against it. This is Haaland, world-class. This is world-class play.”
Wright then added for Haaland’s third goal: “It is very, very difficult to stop that, you’re talking about world-class in respect of assisting, he knows instantly ‘I’m on my way because Kevin’s got it’. And that’s a world-class finish.”
Then in the second-half, Lee Dixon said straight after Haaland’s fourth goal: “Their connection is just frightening.”
After his fifth goal, Dixon exclaimed: “Just look at him, just peeling away. The shot’s not the best, straight at the keeper, but so much power on it! It’s a striking masterclass.”
Erling Haaland is back
It was quite remarkable that Haaland actually had some criticism recently.
It was clear that he was still working his way back from his injury, and that he was lacking a bit of match sharpness.
Although Luton goalkeeper Tim Krul should have done better with a couple of the goals, tonight was just a devastating display from the number nine, and it sends a scary message to City’s title rivals over in the Premier League.
