Vincent Kompany will return to familiar territory when he takes his Burnley side to the Etihad Stadium to face Manchester City in the FA Cup quarter-finals on Saturday evening.
While the Citizens are looking to reach the semi-finals for a fifth successive year, the Clarets are bidding to reach the last four for the first time since the 1973-74 campaign.
For the sixth successive season, Man City will be competing in the Champions League quarter-finals courtesy of a thumping 8-1 aggregate victory over RB Leipzig in the last 16, including a remarkable 7-0 second-leg win at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday.
Erling Braut Haaland stole the show with a record-breaking five-goal haul – taking his goal tally for the season to 39 in all competitions – while Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne were also on the scoresheet to help the Citizens cruise into Friday’s last-eight draw.
Winning the treble remains in City’s reach this term and Pep Guardiola’s men will have their eyes on booking their place at Wembley for the eighth consecutive year when they play host to Burnley, whom they have beaten in each of their last four meetings in the FA Cup – most recently winning 5-0 in the fourth round in 2018-19.
The Citizens head into Saturday’s tie having already beaten Championship opposition in this season’s FA Cup, as they secured a 3-0 away win over Bristol City in the fifth round last month after comfortably seeing off Premier League rivals Chelsea and Arsenal without reply in the previous two rounds earlier this year.
Man City have excelled at the Etihad since the World Cup break, winning eight times and drawing once during a nine-game unbeaten run, while they have won each of their last 10 FA Cup home ties, scoring 41 goals and conceding only four.
However, their last home defeat in the FA Cup was against second-tier opposition when they suffered a 2-0 defeat against Middlesbrough in January 2015, and they cannot underestimate Kompany’s high-flying Burnley outfit on Saturday.
While Guardiola has been lauded as a managerial mastermind during his time at Man City, Vincent Kompany deserves all the plaudits that come his way, transforming Burnley into a free-flowing attack-minded side since joining in the summer – a stark contrast to the philosophy under former boss Sean Dyche.
After suffering relegation from the Premier League last season, the Clarets have been head and shoulders above their Championship counterparts this term and have been sitting pretty at the summit since the end of October.
A 3-1 victory at Hull City on Wednesday, in which top scorer Nathan Tella netted a superb hat-trick, helped maintain their 13-point lead at the top, and Burnley now require just nine points from a possible 27 available to secure automatic promotion to the Premier League.
