Source: Southampton FC official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/southamptonfc
Southampton is facing Manchester City today. There are a few changes in the starting line-up. Since Artur Boruc is ruled out due to a back injury he incurred two days ago. Kelvin Davis is also still out due to a back injury so therefore Paulo Gazzaniga is starting with Cody Cropper on the bench as the reserve goalie. Morgan Schneiderlin is back among the starting eleven, moving James Ward-Prowse to the bench. And Victor Wanyama has returned to the bench.
Within the first 2 minutes of play time José Fonte makes the most stupid defensive mistake when he sticks his leg up backwards to trip over Edin Dzeko. If this foul isn’t reckless enough, he also made it in the box, therefore referee Chris Foy rewards Manchester City with a penalty. Yaya Touré takes the penalty. It flies straight into the bottom right corner. Paulo Gazzaniga didn’t stand a chance. But I am still wondering what Fonte was thinking when he committed the foul, he surely must have know about the consequences.
In the 22nd minute of the match Jay Rodriguez goes down as he just kicked away the ball with a stretched leg. At first they think he overstretched his calf muscle. But it turns out he hurt his right knee. We may just have witnessed how Rodriguez chances for the World Cup broke down, with Roy Hodgson who is also sitting in the crowd. Jay Rodriguez gets stretchered off the field under applause from both Saints as City supporters. James Ward-Prowse comes on the field to replace the injured Rodriguez.
It’s the 35th minute when Jack Cork goes down in the City box as Pablo Zabaleta trips him over just inside the box. Chris Foy spots this and gives Southampton a penalty. Penalty star Rickie Lambert lines up to take it and shoots the ball into the top right corner. With this goal, the teams are level.
In the first half Southampton definitely have been the stronger team. Manchester City has barely shown any skill and just had a handful of lucky chances on goal as Southampton seems to be trying hard to break through City’s defence. But as the added time of the first half starts, the game changes.
In the 45th minute David Silva gets the ball as he is just offside, trust me I’ve watched the replays and am absolutely sure he was offside. Silva passes the ball to Samir Nasri, who makes a good run and scores in the centre of the goal. Paulo Gazzaniga didn’t really stand a chance when he got the one-on-one with Nasri. But what a poor decision by the linesman to not make his offside call.
Only 3 minutes later, just before the added 4 minutes are over, City strikes again. Aleksandar Kolarov crosses the ball towards the box, I have to admit that this was a good cross. Edin Dzeko is ready for it and heads it in the bottom right corner. Southamptons defence just can’t touch the ball and this goal makes the score 3-1 for Manchester City.
The offside goal is what, I believe, turned the whole game around. This is the goal that made the confidence of the Southampton defence crumble a bit, giving City more chance to break through again. This it not a good time for the Saints to go in half time after just conceiving 2 goals within the final 4 minutes of the first half.
The second half doesn’t start of real exciting. The only noticeable thing is that the Southampton defence really is getting weak. The two centre backs don’t seem to be in their right spot most of the time, causing City to break through a couple of times giving Paulo Gazzaniga a hard time.
Rickie Lambert gets a chance in the 74th minute when Adam Lallana plays a through ball to him. However Lambert finds himself in a difficult angle when he is on the right side of the goal near the backline. He shoot but the ball flies past the goal and goes out of play on the left side of the goal. This probably was Lamberts and Southamptons best chance to score.
Steven Davis gets substituted in the 75th minute, making place for young Sam Gallagher.
Yaya Touré decides to dive into the box in the 78th minute, hoping to get another penalty. Chris Foy sees Touré doesn’t even get touched by any Southampton player and therefore rewards the City cheater with a well deserved yellow card.
Mauricio Pochettino makes his final substitution in the 79th minute when he decides to bring on Victor Wanyama. I am surprised to see the Jack Cork is the player who gets subbed off since I believe he has been the best player in this match as he has been defending great. And maybe it would have been smart to take Morgan Schneiderlin off since he only just got back from an injury.
The final goal of the match happens with 10 minutes of game time left when Jesús Navas crosses the ball to Stevan Jovetic. Jovetic shoot the ball from the centre of the box to the centre of the goal, making the final score 4-1. Paulo Gazzaniga is learning the get of his line but might have been better of staying on it this one time as now he wasn’t in the right position to stop Jovetics shot. But even if he did manage to stop this shot, we still would have lost.
With 3 minutes of play time left Victor Wanyama actually receives a free kick instead of giving one away.
Yaya Touré goes down towards the end of the match, apparently a light touch by Lambert was too much for him. The referee agrees and doesn’t reward Touré with anything. All I can wish for is that someone hurt him earlier on so he didn’t have a chance to cheat at all.
I believe Chris Foy has been as fair as he could have been during this match, making the right calls. The fact that City scored in the 45th minute from an offside position isn’t to blame on Foy as he wasn’t in the right spot to notice this. That call is all to blame to the linesman who probably should have gone to specsavers.
In the end Manchester City did deserve to win as Southamptons defence was pathetic in the second half of the match. Conceiving 2 goals within 3 minutes apparently was too much to deal with for the Saints. They never recovered from that incident, even the half time break wasn’t enough to boost their confidence. All we can hope for is that they will perform better in the next match.
asaintsfcangel 