Marcus Rashford fired Manchester United into the League Cup fourth round as the holders crushed Burton 4-1, while Manchester City eased through with a 2-1 win at West Bromwich Albion last might.
City and United, currently first and second in the Premier League, took contrasting routes to the last 16, where they were joined by Chelsea, Arsenal and Everton as the big guns advanced despite fielding weakened teams.
United manager Jose Mourinho made nine changes from the side that thrashed Everton on Sunday, with Rashford and Juan Mata the only survivors.
Rashford took just five minutes to open the scoring with a deft finish and the England forward struck again in the 17th minute with a powerful effort.
Burton, 19th in the Championship, were killed off in the 36th minute when Jesse Lingard’s shot deflected in off Ben Turner.
Injury-ravaged United left-back Luke Shaw came on for his first appearance since April before Anthony Martial scored the fourth from Rashford’s pass on the hour.
Lloyd Dyer got one back for Burton in stoppage-time.
“If you ask me could English football survive or even be better without this competition? Maybe we would be fresher for European competition for example,” Mourinho said.
“But we have this competition, we have to respect the sponsors, we have to respect the opponents and a lot of us are trying to do our best.”
LEAGUE CUP
Arsenal 1-0 Doncaster
Chelsea 5-1 Nottingham Forest
Everton 3-0 Sunderland
Man Utd 4-1 Burton Albion
West Brom 1-2 Man City
LA LIGA
R’ Madrid 0-1 R’ Betis
A’ Bilbao 1-2 Atletico
Sevilla 1-0 Las Palmas
