Alvarez’s double propels Manchester City to second place, sinking Burnley

Julian Alvarez marked his 24th birthday in style, scoring twice as Manchester City effortlessly secured a 3-1 victory against Burnley at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday, propelling them to the second spot in the Premier League standings. The champions dominated the match, with Rodri contributing a third goal, securing their 13th consecutive win over Burnley. During this impressive streak, City netted an astounding 46 goals while conceding only two. Ameen Al Dakhil managed to score a late consolation for the visiting team.

Pep Guardiola’s team secured 46 points from 21 games, trailing leaders Liverpool by just two points. Liverpool is set to face Chelsea later on Wednesday. Burnley currently finds themselves second from the bottom, seven points away from safety, with one more game played than 17th-placed Luton Town.

City’s midfielder, Kevin De Bruyne, marked his first start for the team since the season’s opening day. Additionally, striker Erling Haaland made a notable return, coming off the bench for the final 20 minutes after sitting out the previous 10 games due to injury.

But there would be little sentiment once the game started. City took 16 minutes to have an attempt on target, but they opened the scoring from it.

Matheus Nunes broke down the right flank and his cross from the byline provided a simple headed chance for Alvarez to score and the Argentine doubled his tally six minutes later.

De Bruyne played in the striker with a clever low pass from a free kick to catch the visitors unaware and Alvarez produced a cool finish.

It took City 25 seconds in the second half to increase the lead to 3-0.

De Bruyne picked out Phil Foden on the right wing and his pass to Rodri on the edge of the box resulted in the Spaniard drilling the ball low into the bottom corner.

“I am very happy for Erling to come back, John (Stones) also, Kevin as well. We need all of them. We are stronger when we are all together,” Rodri said.

Burnley scored a scrappy consolation in the 93rd minute when Al Dakhil forced the ball over the line following debutant David Datro Fofana’s low cross into the six-yard box.

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply