Southampton 2, Manchester City 0 (Carabao Cup Quarter Final)
Sekou Mara and Moussa Djenepo scored first half goals that condemned Manchester City to a shock Carabao Cup exit at Southampton.
Embed from Getty ImagesIt was Pep Guardiola’s first exit in a domestic cup competition at the quarter final stage after the Saints aggressively took the game to a weakened City side throughout.
Despite throwing on Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne in the second half City couldn’t muster a single shot on target – for the first time since April 2018 – against one of the worst defences in the Premier League.
And out-of-sorts City even had two foul throws through Sergio Gomez and Joao Cancelo in a wretched night at Saint Mary’s in front of just 22,996 supporters.
The semi final draw will see the Saints play Newcastle United while Nottingham Forest will play Manchester United.
And United will have the second leg at Old Trafford – a massive boost for the Red side of Manchester ahead of this weekend.
Under fire Southampton boss Nathan Jones was delighted with his side’s performance but warned that there was plenty of hard work ahead, he said: “Tonight we were excellent. It’s the second Cup win in a week.
“I’m really proud of the players and the coaching staff, it justified the kind of side we are trying to create.
“I wanted the result as it would have meant we put in a really good performance.
“We’ve been really hard to beat. It’s a step in the right direction and we have to take a lot of those very quickly.
“At least I won’t get any abuse on the way home!”
“The better team won. They were better and deserve to be in the semi finals.” admitted Pep Guardiola after his team were outplayed, hinting that it just wasn’t their day.
“We struggled to make the build up, we had a bad night and we were not ready to play a game away.
“If we perform in this way [at Old Trafford in the Manchester derby], we don’t have a chance.
“To win games you have to deserve it and we didn’t deserve it today.”
Southampton boss Nathan Jones made five changes to the side that beat Crystal Palace at the weekend with ex-City midfielder Romeo Lavia returning to anchor midfield while new signing Carlos Alcaraz was set to join the squad later.
Ex-City goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu continued in goal at rainswept St Mary’s for Southampton and he went on to have a key role in the Saints win.
City boss Pep Guardiola made four changes to the side that thrashed Chelsea in the FA Cup on Sunday with one eye on Saturday’s Manchester derby.
Kalvin Phillips finally made his full debut for City while Joao Cancelo, Ilkay Gundogan, and Jack Grealish returned to the starting lineup.
Cancelo’s presence meant that Kyle Walker was being used as a centre half in a back four while Manuel Akanji, Rodri, Bernardo Silva, and Riyad Mahrez were named on the bench alongside Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne although John Stones was absent for the squad as he was “not fully fit”.
And City had an early chance after Cole Palmer robbed Mohammed Salisu, and he squared the ball for Ilkay Gundogan who shot wide with a weak shot.
But City’s bright start came to an abrupt end after Southampton got to work with targeting City’s second string players.
Stefan Ortega had to dive to his right to save from Duje Caleta-Car and Sekou Mara shot wide before the Saints took a shock lead after City gave the ball away twice and Mara swept the ball home after meeting a deep cross from the right in the 23rd minute – his first goal for the Saints in his 16th appearance.
Saints were in dreamland 5 minutes later when Moussa Djenepo scored his first goal for 22 months when he spotted Stefan Ortega off his line from 25 yards out after running unchallenged into shooting range and lobbed him.
Phillips and Sergio Gomez were particularly poor as City wilted under the intensity of the Southampton high press but in truth no City player was immune to criticism.
Half time changes ineffective for Manchester City who suffer defeat at Southampton days before Manchester derby
City made a triple change at the break after a terrible first half with De Bruyne, Nathan Ake, and Manuel Akanji coming on for Sergio Gomez, Kyle Walker, and Cole Palmer making way.
And De Bruyne created an instant chance for Alvarez with a through ball within seconds of the restart – the Argentine pulled his shot across the face of goal.
Erling Haaland cane on after 56 minutes, replacing Grealish while Djenepo was replaced by Romain Perraud in response.
Kyle Walker-Peters put a cross in which was repelled as the Saints continued to work hard.
Lavia went down for treatment and was replaced by Mohamed Elyounoussi while Sekou Mara was replaced by Che Adams as the Saints freshened up again.
City’s final change was to replace Phillips with Rodri to give them 27 minutes to save the tie.
Haaland stretched to meet a Foden cross but it looped over the bar and the Norwegian was later denied a chance for a tap in from De Bruyne’s cross by a well anticipated interception by Bazunu.
Che Adams was clearly offside after scoring in the 77th minute after yet another City attack broke down while Bazunu jumped on a miskicked Alvarez shot that trickled towards the goal after a cut back by Ilkay Gundogan.
The Saints’ final change saw Adam Armstrong replaced by Mislav Orsic for his debut.
Rodri’s ball into the box was collected by Bazunu after Haaland failed to get on the end of it with barely 2 minutes to go but the home side kept the ball in City’s half as they easily saw out a memorable win for Nathan Jones.