More foul throws than shots on target Man City crash out of Carabao Cup to Southampton
KEY MOMENTS
Chosen by us to get you up to speed at a glanceSemi-final draw Southampton vs Newcastle; Forest vs Man UtdFull timezones answers his critics with complete performance29 minutesGOAL! Watch: Djenepo catches our Ortega22 minutesGOAL! Watch: Mara gives Southampton shock lead transfer news Southampton announces Carlos Alvarez
RELATED:Is WWE Sold to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund?
By Jason Burt, Chief Football Correspondent at St Mary’s
It is the enduring beauty of football that on a beastly night in Southampton the bottom-placed team in the Premier League can dump Pep Guardiola and his imperious Manchester City out of the cup competition they had made their own. More foul throws than shots on target Man City crash out of Carabao Cup to Southampton
Furthermore, who would have guessed that City’s hopes of landing the quadruple would end so shockingly here? Who would have thought they would be knocked out by a head coach, in Nathan Jones, who is only seven games into his time at Southampton but who already has the fans on his back? More foul throws than shots on target Man City crash out of Carabao Cup to Southampton
Still, the cups have been his refuge and despite four league defeats, Southampton has won all three cup matches under Jones although this was clearly the greatest victory of the 49-year-old’s managerial career. He will hope this stormy night on the south coast, when everyone expected Southampton to be battered, will whip up their survival bid. More foul throws than shots on target Man City crash out of Carabao Cup to Southampton
“People have been calling me out saying I am not this, not that. I have even had non-league managers (Havant & Waterlooville’s Paul Doswell) calling me out saying I am not good enough,” Jones said. “I have only been here four weeks so I don’t know what people expect. I am not (magician) David Blaine.” More foul throws than shots on target Man City crash out of Carabao Cup to Southampton
And City? They were out of tricks. This was far from ideal preparation for Saturday’s Manchester derby at Old Trafford which kicks off at lunchtime and far from being able to rest players, as he wanted, Guardiola was forced to bring them on as he chased the tie following an utterly abysmal first-half. More foul throws than shots on target Man City crash out of Carabao Cup to Southampton
“The best team won. We had a bad night,” Guardiola said. “We did not play well…To win games you have to deserve it. Today was not even close to what we are.” More foul throws than shots on target Man City crash out of Carabao Cup to Southampton
In fact, there is sometimes a casualness to City as if it is almost too easy but which results in them coming unstuck. As so it proved. They were aiming to win the League Cup for the sixth time in eight seasons and the fifth time under Guardiola and it is a competition that he cherishes. But their attempt came to a shuddering halt in what was a true and deserved cup upset. More foul throws than shots on target Man City crash out of Carabao Cup to Southampton
Southampton was superb from the first whistle as City did not even have a shot on target and Guardiola lost a domestic cup quarter-final for the first time ever. More foul throws than shots on target Man City crash out of Carabao Cup to Southampton
There were poor performances throughout the team – from stand-in goalkeeper Stefan Ortega to Kyle Walker at center-half and Joao Cancelo at right-back to Jack Grealish who seemed unsettled and reacted and was substituted. More foul throws than shots on target Man City crash out of Carabao Cup to Southampton
Phil Foden began as a number eight in midfield and was barely involved. Even more so Kalvin Phillips, on his first start since joining from Leeds United, who was almost anonymous. He certainly did not pull his weight before being taken off. More foul throws than shots on target Man City crash out of Carabao Cup to Southampton
“It’s not about Kalvin. It was not one player, it was everyone… When you have nights like today the response was for everyone,” Guardiola said. “You have to be prepared for every single game playing for Manchester City and today we were not.” Why not? He did not say. More foul throws than shots on target Man City crash out of Carabao Cup to Southampton
The stadium, apart from the packed-out away end, was far from full which was a surprise for new £ 12 million signing Carlos Alcaraz, a 20-year-old Argentinian midfielder who was paraded before kick-off and maybe reflected the sense of unhappiness around Southampton. But there may be a few regrets about staying away now. More foul throws than shots on target Man City crash out of Carabao Cup to Southampton
Southampton, with the former City midfielder Romeo Lavia absolutely outstanding, went at their opponents and did not relent and claimed two brilliantly-taken goals. They were brave, they pressed and they gained their reward. More foul throws than shots on target Man City crash out of Carabao Cup to Southampton
Lyanco had already twice barrelled into Grealish, strongly challenging the England international and when he did so a third time maybe the winger hesitated because the ball was taken away from him. The defender raced on and arced his cross in the field with Sekou Mara darting in front of Walker to sweep it low into the net. More foul throws than shots on target Man City crash out of Carabao Cup to Southampton
What a way for Mara, the 20-year-old signed from Bordeaux to claim his first Southampton goal, on his 16th appearance, and the celebrations were unbridled. Ortega had already thrown himself at full stretch to tip away a snapshot from Duje Caleta-Car and Southampton’s aggression had clearly unsettled City and they did so again as they scored in the most spectacular style. More foul throws than shots on target Man City crash out of Carabao Cup to Southampton
It came as Moussa Djenepo easily turned Cancelo, who seemed to give up. Still, there was much for Djenepo to do but he was allowed to head goalwards and spotted Ortega way off his line before cleverly flighted a right-foot shot from 30 yards that sailed over the stranded goalkeeper to double Southampton’s advantage. More foul throws than shots on target Man City crash out of Carabao Cup to Southampton
St Mary’s was transformed and Guardiola was stung. He strode furiously around his technical area.
The second-half? Guardiola brought on the big guns but, incredibly, City never looked like scoring which was almost as much of a shock as what had preceded it
Will Southampton take that performance into their crunch game at Everton? Will City continue to be as slack in the Manchester derby? It is an uncomfortably close turnaround for City, heading to Old Trafford on Saturday lunchtime.
More from Jones on the performance
I’m proud of my players first and foremost, proud of myself and my coaching staff, because we have had to go through a lot lately. A lot of people questioning certain things but I think that goes some way to answering why we’re here and the type of side we are trying to create.
I’m absolutely not dreaming because I’ll be up until 3am watching Everton. I’ll probably have one glass of wine in there…at least I won’t get any abuse on my way home.
Nathan Jones on the job ahead at Southampton
I hope this is a big statement. I’m not going to get carried away. We need time to change the direction of the club. The previous manager did a wonderful job, but didn’t win a lot of games. We have had to change the momentum. That takes time.
Guardiola speaking to BBC radio
The better team won. We didn’t play good, we didn’t play well in the beginning. There are many games you can start not good and overcome and we didn’t do it.
When you are not prepared to play this game you arrive one inch late and don’t score a goal. When you are prepared you score the goal.
Today was a bad night, the opponent was better so we have to congratulate them. To win games you have to deserve it and tonight we didn’t deserve it.
The draw….
Southampton vs Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest vs Manchester United are the two semi-finals.
The first legs will be played that way around on w/c January 23.
Sorry, not much suspense there with just four balls in the bag.
Gavin Bazunu’s thoughts
It’s massive. For the whole team. We’ve worked so hard under the new manager on being hard to beat. We need to be a hard team to play against.
We’ve been working on [defending] for the last few weeks. The players in front of me have been amazing.
On the back of the last two results we can take momentum into the game on Saturday.
10:13 PM
The semi-final draw is coming up shortly
Newcastle United, Manchester United, Southampton, and Nottingham Forest are the final four.
