Haaland elated after 'special' FA Cup hat-trick | OneFootball

Erling Haaland expressed his delight after his treble propelled City to a 4-0 FA Cup victory over Liverpool, securing our eighth successive appearance in the semi-final of the competition.

Match Report

Haaland treble inspires record-breaking City into FA Cup semi-finals

The striker stroked in coolly from the penalty spot after 39 minutes following Virgil van Dijk’s trip on Nico O’Reilly, and headed in a wonderful second from Antoine Semenyo’s cross in first-half stoppage time to put us in a commanding position at the interval.

Semenyo then cleverly dinked in our third, before Haaland swept in his 12th City hat-trick from O’Reilly’s unselfish cut-back shortly before the hour mark.

GALLERY: HAT-TRICK HERO HAALAND ELIMINATES LIVERPOOL!

James Trafford wonderfully preserved our clean sheet with an impressive penalty save from Mohamed Salah’s effort as we made FA Cup history, becoming the first side ever to win 18 home games in a row in the competition.

“Amazing. Honestly first half we struggled a bit,” Haaland began in an interview after the game. “But after around 30 minutes we kept going, kept going, and in the end it’s an amazing game at home. Another Wembley trip for us is amazing and important.

“It’s been some time since I did it [hat-trick] for City so I think it’s about time that I did it again! Another hat-trick is always nice and is special. I’m super happy.

“I will tell him [Semenyo] to keep doing this a lot now because it worked out well. We work in training. Antoine is new, it takes a bit of time with new players and he is outstanding.

“Nico [O’Reilly] was outstanding today he gave me a tap in and he made the penalty. I’m just super happy to be here.”

After securing Carabao Cup glory last month, Haaland made it clear that the team are eager for more silverware and will do everything they can to progress into the final of the FA Cup.

“Since I came here I won it and now we’re back at Wembley, it’s about trying to do our best because this club has to win trophies and we have to perform at the best and biggest stage.

“I cannot keep thinking of what I could have done differently, or what didn’t happen. I have to think about the next game.

“The reality is now for us it’s a long week for us now because we’re not in the Champions League, which is not good enough.

“But we won today and now we have to start focusing on Chelsea, it’s another massive game.”