Southampton FC have stunned Manchester City in the Carabao Cup. Last night, The Saints eliminated Manchester City as they defeated the Guardiola boys by a two-goal margin. As a result, Southampton FC have secured a place in the semifinal of the Carabao Cup, where they will face Newcastle United.
As it happened
Before the match, Pep Guardiola hinted that he would rotate his squad against Southampton FC. However, he benched several key players in this match. Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, and Ederson were on the bench against the Saints.
However, Pep Guardiola played Julian Alvarez instead of Haaland. Jack Grealish and Phil Foden also played alongside the Argentine world cup winner. Besides, the Saints boss played his team in a 4-2-3-1 formation.
Nathan Jones, the manager of Southampton FC, played a mind game against Pep Guardiola. Manchester City have been playing the possessional game for a long time, and Nathan Jones knows that. Thus, the Saints manager set up a very compact defense line.
Manchester City kept 72% of the possession against Southampton, but they failed to break the defense. Moreover, The Guardiola boys took seven shots, and all of them were not on target. They failed to take a single on-target shot in the entire 90 minutes.
However, the home team destroyed the Citizens after the first twenty minutes. In the 23rd minute, Southampton FC found the net as Sekou Mara scored that goal with Lyanco’s assist. Within five minutes, the home team doubled their lead as Moussa Djenepo found the net. After that, Manchester City fought for their lives to score goals, but they failed to find the net. As a result, Southampton FC won the match and sealed the semifinal.
Reactions
Man City’s midfielder Ilkay Gundogan and their manager shared their views on the disappointing defeat against Southampton FC. Gundogan said, “There’s no room for any mistakes, or for any poor performances like today. Hopefully, if there is something good we can take out of this game today, it was something like a wake up call at the right time.”
“Even though it is sad and disappointing to be out of this cup, hopefully, at the end, in a few weeks we can at least look back and take something good out of this game,” he added.
On the other hand, Pep Guardiola said, “We didn’t react good to the bad start. We didn’t perform well and to win games, and I’m not talking titles, you have to deserve it.”