A humiliating loss for Liverpool against Manchester City in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup

Manchester City deepened the wounds of its guest Liverpool and inflicted a crushing 4-0 defeat on Saturday in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, in a match that saw Norwegian Erling Haaland score a hat-trick and Egyptian Liverpool star Mohamed Salah miss a penalty kick.
Salah failed to continue the journey towards a second title in the competition after the first in 2022. The Egyptian “Pharaoh”, who scored 255 goals with the “Reds”, will finish nine exceptional seasons at Anfield next summer, before participating in the World Cup with his country’s national team.
It seems that the fate of Liverpool coach, the Dutchman Arne Slot, has become bleak with this harsh loss (he has only won twice in the last seven matches), while City fans chanted to him, “You will be fired tomorrow morning.”
It occupies a disappointing fifth place in the league, 21 points away from leaders Arsenal, and only the Champions League remains ahead of it, where it faces defending champion Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday in the first leg of the quarter-finals.
Despite leading Liverpool to a record twentieth league title less than a year ago, Slot is under great pressure.
On the other hand, City, runner-up in the league standings, is still in the race to equal its achievement as the only English team to win the domestic treble (League Cup, FA Cup, League) in the 2019 season.
This is the first time that his exceptional Spanish coach, Pep Guardiola, has succeeded in winning three consecutive wins over Liverpool, and the first for City since 1937, on his way to reaching the semi-finals of the cup for the eighth time in a row and achieving the 18th consecutive victory in the competition, which is a record.
Liverpool had two chances to open the scoring through Salah alone and Frenchman Ugo Equité, and Frenchman Rayan Sharqi responded to them.
But City, ecstatic from winning the League Cup at Arsenal’s expense 2-0, won a penalty kick after Dutch defender Virgil van Dijk blocked young left-back Nico O’Reilly. Haaland converted it against Georgian goalkeeper Georgi Mamardashvili, Brazil’s replacement for the injured Alisson Becker (39).
Haaland scored again before entering the dressing room, with a cross-header from Ghanaian Antoine Semenyu (45+2).
City continued its outing at the beginning of the second with a pass from Sharqi that freed Simenho, who easily scored (50). Then the situation became more critical for Liverpool, after a decisive pass from O’Reilly opened the door to a hat-trick for Haaland (57).
Even the penalty kick that Liverpool won after being obstructed by Portuguese Matheus Nunesh in Equitique, was missed by Salah in front of goalkeeper James Trafford (64).
City, runner-up in the last cup against Crystal Palace, is looking to qualify for the final for the fourth time in a row, then win its eighth title, six away from record-holder Arsenal.