**An Erling Haaland hat-trick and an Antoine Semenyo goal helped Pep Guardiola’s side dispatch of Liverpool to reach an eighth successive FA Cup semi-final.**
After an end-to-end first half, City took control of the quarter final after Erling Haaland’s penalty. Haaland quickly grabbed a second, heading home from Antoine Semenyo’s inviting cross.
The second half started in the same way as the first, with Semenyo scoring a lovely dink, before Haaland fired home his hat-trick to confirm a quick return to Wembley for Manchester City.
A terrible day for Liverpool was only made worse after Mohamed Salah missed a penalty in his first game since announcing his departure in the Summer.
Liverpool started the brighter of the two teams, and had a few early sights of the Manchester City goal. Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike were combining well and both had early efforts that they failed to make the most of.
The best chance of the opening period of the game fell to Mohamed Salah. He latched onto a long ball from Giorgi Mamardashvili and looked set to fire home but the Egyptian dallied on the ball and allowed Abdukodir Khusanov to use his incredible pace to recover and get a challenge in.
At the other end, Rayan Cherki then had a huge chance of his own. The usual supreme technician failed to control a lovely threaded pass from Bernardo Silva and Mamardashvili was able to come out and smother the ball.
The chances continued to fall Liverpool’s way, as Ekitike passed up another decent opportunity. Rodri was unable to get the ball under control in his own penalty area and the ball landed at the Frenchman’s feet, whose powerful effort blazed over the bar.
On 36 minutes, the game had its first huge moment, as Nico O’Reilly, fresh off the back of his double in the Carabao Cup final two weeks ago, was brought down in the Liverpool box by Virgil Van Dijk, and Michael Oliver pointed to the spot to award the hosts a penalty. Up stepped Erling Haaland from 12 yards and he sent the goalkeeper the wrong way to give Manchester City the lead in the first FA Cup quarter final of the weekend.
After this goal the momentum of the game changed as City took complete control.
And unlike the visitors, they took advantage of this momentum and grabbed a second goal before half-time with Haaland grabbing his second of the afternoon. Cherki did brilliantly down the right hand side before finding Antoine Semenyo, his cross was perfect and inviting for the Norwegian striker who got there before Ibrahima Konaté and found the net to send City into the break with a two goal advantage.
The second half continued in the same way the first ended, with Manchester City scoring. O’Reilly found Cherki in between the Liverpool defence and midfield, he played a perfectly timed pass into Antoine Semenyo who elequantly dinked the ball over the onrushing Mamardashvili into the net to surely cement a semi-final place for the hosts.
Salah nearly got one back for Liverpool quickly after but his low effort was well kept out by James Trafford. At the other end, Cherki brilliantly carried the ball forward before again finding Semenyo in front of goal, but the latter took a poor touch to waste an opportunity for a fourth City goal.
But it didn’t take long before they grabbed that fourth, and of course, it was Haaland who got it to complete his hattrick. Liverpool were caught wide open on the break, as Jérémy Doku slid a ball through to O’Reilly who’s cut back found the Norwegian striker who fired the ball home via the crossbar.
Things just went from bad to worse for Liverpool after Salah, in his first game since announcing his departure in the summer, had a penalty well saved by James Trafford.
The game petered out in the second half, as both sides took off key players to rest them for the big games coming up in the near future.
Lineups provided by [Sofascore](https://sofascore.com/)