Was Man City wrong to beat Burton 9-0? Or do the critics miss the goal of football?

When Manchester City beat Burton Albion in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final earlier this month, the result sent Twitter in all its states.

Pep Guardiola and the company had to score as many goals? Was it exaggerated? Or did City have a duty to go out and win as energetically as possible?

As we enter the second stage, ESPN FC Editor-in-Chief Mark Ogden and Associate Editor James Martin argue.

Teams should score as many goals as possible: JAMES MARTIN

The sport is show. It's entertainment. So why was there so much anger when Manchester City scored nine goals in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg match with Burton Albion?

If the reaction on Twitter had anything to say, you would have thought that Jesus (scorer of four goals) & Co. were waterboard puppies.

Guess what? The goal of football is to score points, not to wonder if you are embarrassing your opponent.

In the late 1800s, Preston North End beat Hyde United 26-0 and Dundee Harp scored 35 goals on Aberdeen Rovers.

There are recent examples: Villarreal crushed Navata 27-0 in a friendly match in 2009, and on the biggest stage of the World Cup, Germany scored 7-1 on the board of performance of Brazil – in Brazil – in 2014.

Should we make fun of Jogi Low for not having pity on us? Please. This was the most memorable moment of the tournament. Last weekend, PSG had crushed Guingamp 9-0.

The goals are fun. This is the first – and often the only – thing you see on the highlight reels for a reason.

I will not blame Kevin De Bruyne, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Phil Foden, Kyle Walker, and Riyad Mahrez – who have all taken control of the desperate Burton Albion – for coming to the proverbial jugular.

I know: Man City's opponents are playing in League One, third in English football, and they were truly an abject team that could make a pub team look like a drummer in the world, but it's not a reason for City to apply its brakes.

Pep Guardiola would never do it. After all, no one complained when his Barcelona team beat Real Madrid 6-2 in 2009.

At the Carabao Cup, he formed a team that would feel at home in the Premier League. The right call. S? He played the kids? He was criticized for not taking the competition seriously.

City could have kept the score closer. But manipulating the game to maintain, for example, a "respectable" 3-0 is the quintessential compliment of the back of the hand. On the surface, you are trying to make your opponent look good, whereas in reality you are doing the opposite.

And by the way, what is the acceptable limit for raising the score? 3-0? 4-0? 6-0? You speak of an arbitrary line in the sand.

Plus, if you turn the game into an endless series of side and back passes to eliminate the attack attack until the end of the allotted time, the match will morph into a classic skit of Monty Python, "The Philosopher's Football Game", in which nothing happens. for 90 minutes between Archimedes, Socrates, Nietzsche and the crew.

Instead, City went through Burton in the gladiatorial style. The only thing missing was a Russell Crowe "Do not you entertain?" of Jesus.

For the record, the answer is "yes".

THIS IS NOT OK TO WIN 9-0: MARK OGDEN

When I tweeted in the City Carabao Cup 9-0 semi-final victory in Manchester City, Pep Guardiola's players pushed the boundaries of professional etiquette by ruthlessly pursuing the goals of their third-ranked opponents, the answer was pretty predictable.

This response was aimed primarily at making professional sport a place where there was no hiding place and at the suggestion that City would give Burton the ultimate respect by keeping his foot firmly on the pedal and not bending in the final stages.

Of course, every opinion is valid, but mine has not changed since the approach of the second stage of Wednesday at the Pirelli stadium.

If City had faced a Premier League opponent in a league game, my point of view would have been different. With points in the game and against a team from the same division, City would be right to score as many goals as possible.

After all, the goal difference is important in a league match, and City knows it better than anyone else, having won the title in 2011-2012 with the goal difference in front of Manchester United.

But it was not a championship game. Burton is a League One team; they currently sit at mid-table in third place in English football and they are literally not in the same league as the City Stars team.

After 62 minutes, City offered a 6-0 lead following a 6-0 lead over the management team. The match and the tie had been won.

There was no way for Burton to go back. The label "professional label" should have aimed to save an adversary – which did not correspond at all – with useless humiliation.

As professionals, City players should have protected their Burton counterparts from the humiliation that will accompany them until the end of their days, not to mention their career.

This Burton team made history by reaching a semifinal. They should be remembered as club heroes, but there is now a huge asterisk in the shape of a 9-0 hammer.

The high level sport must be ruthless, but at one point, impiety becomes a humiliation, and that's what happened when City created seven, eight, and then nine.

This article was first published on ESPN.com.