Erling Haaland emphasised his desire to lead Manchester City's charge for trophies this season, after scoring a hat-trick in their FA Cup quarter-final thrashing of Liverpool. 

Haaland opened the scoring in the 39th minute before rounding off a fine team move in first-half stoppage time to double his, and his team's, account.

The Citizens did not let up after the break, with Antoine Semenyo lofting the ball over Giorgi Mamardashvili before Haaland concluded the rout with another ruthless 57th-minute finish that rattled the crossbar on its way in. 

Since his City debut in July 2022, Haaland has now scored 12 hat-tricks across all competitions, the outright most across Europe's top five leagues, moving one clear of Bayern Munich's Harry Kane (11).

Haaland also maintained his fine record against Liverpool. He has now scored in each of his last four home games against the Reds in all competitions (five goals).

In doing so, he became only the third Premier League player (since 1992-93) to score in four or more consecutive home appearances against Liverpool, along with Chris Sutton (four from 1994 to 1996) and Sergio Aguero (five from 2013 to 2017).

Pep Guardiola's side have already won one trophy this season, signing off for the March international break with victory over Arsenal in the EFL Cup final, but the Norwegian believes his team are capable of adding more silverware this campaign. 

"I have been in an FA Cup final, and now we are going to Wembley. This club has to win trophies on the biggest stage," Haaland told TNT Sports. 

Liverpool had looked lively in the opening stages, with Mohamed Salah, who missed a penalty in the second half, firing wide under pressure from Abdukodir Khusanov before Hugo Ekitike blazed over after a loose touch from Rodri. 

But once City went ahead, they never looked likely to surrender their advantage. They finished with an expected goals (xG) total of 2.5 from their 11 shots, compared to Liverpool's 1.43 from the same number of attempts. 

"Amazing. In the first half, we struggled a bit, but we kept going after 30 minutes. Amazing, another Wembley trip for us which is important," Haaland added. 

"Between 30 minutes and 60, that is one of our better performances [of the season]."

Haaland's treble saw him reach 33 goals in 44 matches in all competitions in 2025-26, though the City number nine did admit he had been below par recently. 

"It has been too up and down, which has not been good enough," Haaland said.

"For now it is a long week for us because we are not in the Champions League, which is not good enough, but we have to face Chelsea, which is another game."