On their return to Manchester, Burnley bowed out of the FA Youth Cup losing 2-0 to Manchester City at the Etihad last night.
A month after winning 4-3 at Old Trafford to knock United out the Clarets couldn’t repeat the trick against their neighbours and were undone by two moments of continental quality supplied by Portuguese winger Marcos Lopes and Spanish striker Jose Pozo.
A brave performance saw the Clarets contain the Blues in a first half while trying to play on the counter attack.
And Terry Pashley’s men have even gone in to the interval ahead had Jamie Frost not blazed over after latching on to on to a mistake from Dutch defender Karim Rekik.
While City enjoyed a lot of possession Pashley’s side remained disciplined in a compact 4-5-1 formation and it took the hosts until the 77th minute to break the deadlock, when Brazil-born Lopes, who cost the Blues a rumoured £800,000, raced through to slot a coolly past Callum Jakolevs.
The strike from Lopes, who five days earlier had become the youngest goalscorer in City’s history – against Watford in the FA Cup, came at just the right time for Adam Sadler’s men who had struggled to break through a determined Burnley defence.
City’s second goal and clincher came with three minutes remaining when, Jose Pozo, a summer signing from Real Madrid, curled in after a mazy dribble.
With many of the 2,570 crowd having made the short journey from East Lancashire to follow the Clarets, Burnley’s hat-trick hero of the third Round, Jason Gilchrist took to Twitter after the match:
He said:“Lost 2-0 good effort by the lads! Just didn’t have enough in the end! Great support by the burnley fans didn’t even hear city support #utc
“0-0 at half time they had a lot of possession but we had the better chances keeper saved a few. A few moments of class won it.”
“Gutted. Last ever youth cup game.. but we need to just push on from here and make the league ours!
