Southampton will travel to Anfield on Sunday to face Liverpool, in pursuit of three points to close the gap on West Brom and eighth place in Premier League.
Saints fans will hope to see a vast improvement on the team’s previous performance – a lifeless (and goalless) draw at home against relegation threatened Hull City.
Claude Puel will be hoping that the Saints can put an end to their goal-scoring troubles while maintaining their current defensive record against this Liverpool side, against whom they have achieved three clean sheets in this campaign alone.
This isn’t the first time in 2017 that the sides have clashed on Merseyside, with the last meeting back in January ending as 1-0 victory for the Saints in the second leg of the EFL Cup semi-final, which resulted in the club’s first appearance in a major final for over a decade.
Saints went into the game needing to protect a 1-0 advantage courtesy of a Nathan Redmond goal from the first leg at St Mary’s. The game also marked the first time this season that Maya Yoshida and Jack Stephens were partnered in Saints’ back-line, and they certainly had their work cut out for them.
An early surge of Liverpool attacks eventually ended with Roberto Firmino barely testing Fraser Forster with a tame shot from outside the box. The early pressure from Liverpool, however, did leave them vulnerable on the counter attack with Nathan Redmond making two dangerous runs in to the Liverpool box; the first ending in Dusan Tadic having a low shot luckily saved by the backside of Loris Karius and the second with Steven Davis blazing a left footed shot over the bar.
The second half got a little bit more uncomfortable for Saints, who experienced a real heart-in-mouth moment just after half time. Emre Can received the ball 30-yards from goal and unleashed a driven shot towards Fraser Forster. The Saints goalkeeper was only able to fumble the shot which then bounced over him and precariously close to the goal-line. Luckily for Saints, Forster was able to quickly manoeuvre himself to palm the ball off the line, with technology ruling that it had not crossed.
Saints were then on the back-foot as Liverpool pressed higher up the pitch while looking constantly dangerous. Daniel Sturridge missed a couple of glorious opportunities and Yoshida, Stephens and Oriol Romeu made some key tackles and interceptions in an incredible defensive display.
Just as it looked like Saints might just be able to hold out for the 1-0 aggregate scoreline, Liverpool won a corner in 90th minute, trying to take the contest to extra-time. The ball was fizzed in but eventually fell to Josh Sims, who used his fresh legs to embark on a mazy run into Liverpool’s half while evading the defenders’ retreating sprints.
He calmly found Shane Long in the box who rifled a low, hard shot past Karius to send the Southampton following in Anfield into delirium and the Southampton team to a Wembley final.
