SOUTHAMPTON 4, MANCHESTER CITY 2
It was hardly the best way to prepare for the second leg of a Champions League Semi-Final but a much-changed Manchester City side was ruthlessly demolished 4-2 by a Southampton side who looked intent on chasing West Ham and Manchester United down for a place in next season’s Europa League.
An early strike by Shane Long followed by a hat trick from Sadio Mane saw off City who reduced the deficit twice through Kelechi Iheanacho but never looked like taking anything home from St Mary’s.
The defeat may have been almost as costly to them as Manchester United’s draw with Champions elect Leicester City earlier in the day, with City now needing to win both of their remaining games against Arsenal at home and Swansea away to guarantee Champions League football for next season.
City remain fourth with two games to play, and are just four points ahead of Manchester United in 5th place who have three games to play.
City made eight changes from the side that drew 0-0 with Real Madrid at the Etihad on Tuesday although City boss Manuel Pellegrini had his options limited thanks to injuries to David Silva and Yaya Toure.
Pellegrini had earlier bemoaned the lack of co-operation from the FA and Premier League when asking for this game to be staged a day earlier and, as with City’s eventual FA Cup exit at Chelsea earlier this season, found himself forced to choose to prioritise competitions once again with Real playing yesterday and gaining an extra day of rest and recovery.
It was clear that the Chilean was protecting the likes of Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and Kevin De Bruyne when the teams were announced at Southampton.
The only players to stay in the side from that night were Joe Hart, Nicolas Otamendi, and Fernandinho and they are highly likely to be the only ones who keep their places after the disappointing result at St Mary’s.
The players coming in were Aleksandar Kolarov, Eliaquim Mangala, Pablo Zabaleta, Raheem Sterling, Fabian Delph, Samir Nasri, Wilfried Bony, and Kelechi Iheanacho.
Although some of these players were recovering from recent injuries, there was little excuse for the gaping holes in City’s defence with Kolarov in particular guilty of leaving alarming gaps which were exploited by the pace of Long and Mane as Southampton, orchestrated by Dusan Tadic, finished off the visitors.
Shane Long had already caused havoc in the City defence before he stabbed home the opening goal from a Tadic cross in the 25th minute.
Three minutes later Mane stunned City at the business end of a quick break when Tadic released the Senegalese forward who fired home their second goal.
Mane reacted quickest after Jose Fonte’s header came off the crossbar after 57 minutes and he completed his hat trick in the 68th minute when Tadic once again found Mane on the break and eager to take home the match ball.
Nigerian youngster Iheanacho was the only player to emerge from the massacre, which saw City go 2-0 down before the half hour mark, with pride intact after scoring his 12th and 13th goals of the season.
His 44th minute goal came from a header past Fraser Forster after a cross by Nasri, while his 78th minute spectacular strike was little more than a consolation with the Saints already four goals to the good.