MANCHESTER CITY may have put nine goals past his side but Burton Albion manager Nigel Clough was still in the mood to celebrate.

Gabriel Jesus netted four times for the hosts who scored three goals in seven minutes towards the end of the first half in a demonstration of the gap between themselves and their League One opponents.

Oleksandr Zinchenko, Kyle Walker, Riyad Mahrez and substitute Phil Foden also got their names on the scoresheet, but Burton boss Clough was not downhearted after the game.

“We have made history in getting this far,” he said. 

“It wasn’t about tonight, it was about Burton Albion celebrating the achievement of reaching the League Cup semi-final. There are a lot of of clubs who have never been to a semi-final, ever.

“We hate losing 9-0 but with what they had on the pitch tonight it was nothing more than we expected.”

Opponents City were very professional in the way they went about their business. They sent out an experienced side but also gave a starts to central defender Eric Garcia on his 18th birthday and 20-year-old goalkeeper Aro Muric.

Foden got more valuable playing time from the bench, scoring his third goal for the club and his second in less than a week after scoring against Rotherham United in the FA Cup.

The home fans were pushing for 10 and at that point there was more urgency from the players than there had been at any point during the game as they chased double figures. Burton were at least able to prevent that.

“We kept going right to the end, they were shouting: ‘We want 10’ and we stopped them, that’s a positive for us,” added Clough.

“Our players see [City] on TV every week, but seeing it first hand they couldn’t believe how good their players were. The lads said they don’t seem to be running at times, they seem to glide around the pitch they are that good.”