Manchester City visited Southampton on Sunday and confirmed their favoritism, winning 4-1 and advancing to the FA Cup semi-finals. Despite the balance in most of the game, the team took off in the final stage and secured the classification.
In a busy start to the game, Southampton scared just nine minutes. Midfielder Oriol Romeu released Armstrong, who touched the goalkeeper’s exit and saw the ball hit the post.
Soon after, City opened the scoring. The Brazilian Gabriel Jesus counted on the defender’s failure, recovered the ball inside the area and served Sterling. The Englishman just took it from the goalkeeper and swung the nets.
Southampton was not intimidated and returned to danger, in the 23rd minute. Once again, Armstrong took the ball after a good offensive plot, but shot over it. The visitors responded in sequence, when the Portuguese Cancelo passed the marker on the left and crossed in the area to Gundogan, who kicked the post.
In the final stretch of the first half, Southampton began to press and had good opportunities to equalize the score. The tie, however, was not long in coming. In stoppage time, the Norwegian Elyounoussi received in depth and crossed low, counting on a deflection in the defender Laporte, who sent the ball to the goal.
The second stage started evenly, but soon City took the lead again. Gabriel Jesus again was important for the goal, suffering a penalty in the 15th minute. Belgian Kevin de Bruyne hit a cross and converted the penalty.
From there, the game had a back-and-forth moment, with both teams having chances to score. However, in the 30th minute, Pep Guardiola’s team had a good exchange of passes and the ball stayed with Phil Foden, at the edge of the area. The young man amended a shot and scored the third for the Manchester team.
Just three minutes later, Cancelo crossed a trivela to Gundogan, who dominated in the chest and set it up for Mahrez. The Algerian kicked the goalkeeper’s counterfoot and declared victory.
Manchester City’s next commitment is against Burnley, after the completion of the FIFA date, for the English Championship.
Source: Gazetaesportiva
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