Deadly duo Erl and KDB send message to rivals in trophy hunt

ERLING Haaland threw his arms up in the air in frustration, and half a second later Kevin de Bruyne did the same.

-  SIMON BAJKOWSKI

The pair could only stare and watch as Jordan Clark curled the ball past Stefan Ortega from 25 yards, but the only surprise in the gestures was that for once it was Haaland that had gone first.

In the 45 minutes before that, it was De Bruyne who had teed up his team-mate three times to send City through to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup with an emphatic performance.

Both were briefly animated at the team conceding because they, like the rest of the team, are serial and serious winners, but they had already done the damage.

As long as they were on the pitch, Pep Guardiola did not have to worry.

City showed quality and spirit to win here in the league back in December when their confidence was low after four winless games, and they also showed they could win without their chief creator and destroyer with Haaland joining De Bruyne on the sidelines for two months.

As Guardiola has said though, the pair don't half help City to win football matches when they play- and especially when they play together.

Haaland has not hit the heights that he did last season when he broke all manner of records, yet he still has 27 goals to his name for the campaign before February is out thanks to the eighth hattrick of his City career. Yes, eight.

Each of them was assisted by De Bruyne to move the Belgian up alongside Phil Foden at the top of the City assist charts for the campaign.

He missed the first half but has motored into double figures with the intensity of a man who is relishing being back on a football pitch again.