Guardiola’s facet paid the worth for a limp show and by no means recovered after first half targets from Sekou Mara and Moussa Djenepo at St Mary’s.
Southampton gamers have a good time a objective of their English League Cup match towards Manchester City on 11 January 2023. Picture: @SouthamptonFC/Twitter
LONDON – Pep Guardiola admitted Manchester City have been “not prepared” as they suffered a shock 2-0 defeat towards struggling Southampton within the League Cup quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Guardiola’s facet paid the worth for a limp show and by no means recovered after first half targets from Sekou Mara and Moussa Djenepo at St Mary’s.
City sit second within the Premier League, whereas Southampton are languishing on the backside of the desk.
But that massive hole wasn’t evident on a moist and windy evening on the south coast that Guardiola will need to overlook in a rush.
For the primary time in 16 home cup quarterfinals, Guardiola had completed as a loser and he had no complaints concerning the outcome.
“The better team won. We didn’t play good. There are many games you can start not good and overcome but we didn’t do it,” he stated.
“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 nasty evening, the opponent was higher so we now have to congratulate them. We did not deserve to win.”
City’s surprise exit continued a worrying trend of lacklustre performances this season in games Guardiola would expect them to win, a failing that has left the champions trailing five points behind leaders Arsenal in the Premier League.
Guardiola will demand an immediate response in Saturday’s crucial Premier League derby against Manchester United.
He made four changes from Sunday’s 4-0 FA Cup third round rout of Chelsea, with Kalvin Phillips handed his first City start since his £42 million ($51 million) move from Leeds last year.
Phillips was labelled overweight by Guardiola after he returned from England duty at the World Cup and the midfielder hardly made the Spaniard eat his words with a largely anonymous display that ended with his substitution after 63 minutes.
Phillips’ flop was in keeping with City’s unusually limp display, with their lack of poise and purpose visible right from the start.
SLOPPY CITY
Southampton went ahead in the 23rd minute when Lyanco cut out a loose pass from Sergio Gomez and delivered a low cross that France Under-21 international Mara swept home for his first goal for the club.
Five minutes later, Mali international Djenepo was allowed to advance unchecked before curling a superb 30-yard strike over Stefan Ortega, who was caught too far off his line.
Guardiola sent on Kevin De Bruyne at the interval and Erling Haaland after 56 minutes, but his lethargic team finished without a shot on target.
Southampton have never won the League Cup, losing the 1979 and 2017 finals, and they will face Newcastle in a two-legged semifinal later in January.
Saints boss Nathan Jones will hope this surprise success can be the springboard to silverware and, more importantly, Premier League survival.
“We’ve gone via lots lately, folks questioning a whole lot of issues. That goes somewhat manner to justifying why we’re right here and what crew we’re making an attempt to create,” Jones stated.
Nottingham Forest earned a final 4 tie towards Manchester United after beating Wolves 4-3 on penalties following a 1-1 draw on the City Ground.
After final weekend’s embarrassing FA Cup loss towards second tier Blackpool, Forest are again on the Wembley path as they reached the League Cup semifinals for the primary time since 1992.
They took the lead via a close-range end from former Wolves centre-back Willy Boly within the 18th minute.
Raul Jimenez grabbed Wolves’ sixty fourth minute equaliser, however Dean Henderson was Forest’s shoot-out star as he saved penalties from Joe Hodge and Ruben Neves.