Southampton 1-4 Man City (Laporte and 45 + 2 ′ | Sterling 12 ′, De Bruyne 61 ′ pen, Foden 75 ′, Mahrez 78 ′)
Manchester City have paved the way for the FA Cup semi-finals to keep their hopes alive to win the treble this season.
Phil Foden’s impressive goal was the culmination of an ultimately comfortable victory that saw the Premier League leader finally improve on a side that they had twice drawn this season.
Raheem Sterling, the outstanding Kevin De Bruyne and Riyad Mahrez are also on hand at St Mary’s Stadium, where Saints got hope from Aymeric Laporte’s own goal, which saw the sides break at half-time.
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The Saints must have feared that it would not be their day when Adam Armstrong rolled a shot against post after ingenious work by Tino Livramento.
That proved to be the case, when City headed straight to the other end, and when Jack Stephens did not clear his lines, Sterling was there to punish the foul, passing the ball past Fraser Forster in 12 minutes. closed.
It looked as if City did not look back because, thanks to De Bruyne’s claim, they had moved forward at will, but Southampton’s high-spirited pass-and-move game ensured that it was hardly a boring moment.
Shane Long and Armstrong and diligently followed waist-crippled crib Ralph Hasenhuttl’s orders to harry the City’s defense, and their non-stop efforts finally paid dividends with Laporte’s own goal, two minutes into the first Half time.
Player ratings
Southampton (4-4-2):
- Forster – 7
- Livramento – 7
- Stephens – 5
- Salisu – 5
- Walker-Peters – 7
- S. Armstrong – 6
- Rome – 6
- Ward-Prowse – 7
- Elyounoussi – 7
- Long – 6
- A. Armstrong – 6
Subs:
- Broja – 6
- Adams – 6
- Djenepo – 6
- Dial – N / A
- Smallbone – N / A
Man City (4-3-3):
- Steffen – 6
- Walker – 7
- Close – 6
- Laporte – 6
- Cancellation – 7
- De Bruyne – 8
- Rodri – 7
- Gundogan – 6
- Sterling – 7
- Jesus – 7
- Size – 6
Subs:
- Mahrez – 6
- Foot – 6
- Zinchenko – 6
- Ake – 6
- Fernandinho – 6
Armstrong rolled the ball with a breakthrough to Mohamed Elyounoussi, who took advantage of Zack Steffen’s goalkeeper to hit the ball into Goalmouth, where he was diverted to Laporte.
Saints started the second half as they finished the first by keeping the pressure on City defending. This approach even came to De Bruyne, whose erroneous judgment allowed James Ward-Prowse to force a good save from Steffen.
The visitors’ central defense should have had no trouble clearing the pass to Salisu de Jesus, but the De Bruyne player managed to shrug them off and fired a low shot past the keeper to give his team the lead.
Che Adams, on for Armstrong should equalize, but hit a shot straight at Steffen and that was as good as it got for Saints.
Foden had clear water between the two sides with a thunderstorm 20-yard strike at 75 minutes before fellow substitutes Mahrez beat Forster with a clever low shot three minutes later.
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