Southampton took another step closer to Wembley with a reasonably comfortable 2-1 victory over bottom of the league Aston Villa in the 4th round of the Capital One Cup.
The Saints were looking to progress to the stage at which they got knocked out of last time round, losing 1-0 to Sheffield United, but they needed to see off a resilient Aston Villa side to do so.
Ronald Koeman has recently expressed his desire to win silverware in the last two years of his contract with Southampton, and they have certainly taken another step forward in their chase for cup glory; even with seven changes to the team that drew against Liverpool on Sunday.
Maya Yoshida, Steven Caulker and Matt Targett came into the defence to replace Cedric Soares, captain Jose Fonte and Ryan Bertrand for The Saints as Koeman decided to give opportunities to some of his second-choice players. Oriol Romeu came into the Southampton side for Jordy Clasie as well as James Ward-Prowse replacing Steven Davis just ahead of Romeu. Due to the suspension of Sadio Mane, Gaston Ramirez got a chance to start his first game for Southampton in over two seasons, as well as Juanmi getting an opportunity due to Dusan Tadic being rested.
It was an extremely tedious first half, with sloppy passing to begin with and chances coming very rarely. Neither Southampton nor Aston Villa could really get a foothold in the game, but it was the visitors who had the best of the chances in the first half. Villa right winger, Leandro Bacuna drove a powerful shot at Maarten Stekelenburg’s near post, only for the Dutch stopper to make a routine save. Just before half time, also, striker Rudy Gestede found his space at the back post to try and divert his header from close range past Stekelenburg, but the Southampton ‘keeper was not to be beaten on this occasion, as he made a good low save to deny Gestede an opener.
However, whatever Ronald Koeman said to his players at half-time worked wonders, as it was Southampton who drew first blood in the tie. On the 51st minute, Maya Yoshida picked the ball up just inside the Aston Villa half, before playing a neat one-two with the returning Gaston Ramirez who played the ball into the path of Yoshida, before directly running at the Villa defence and slotting the ball home on his left foot from 22-yards from goal to make it 1-0. It was Yoshida’s first goal for The Saints since December last year, when they defeated Everton 3-0 in the Premier League.
Aston Villa tried to change the tide of the game by bringing on the attacking trio of Jack Grealish, Jordan Ayew and Scott Sinclair all in quick succession, however Southampton had substitutes raring to go, and Ronald Koeman earned many plaudits through his excellent tactics of carrying out a double substitution, seeing Steven Davis and Dusan Tadic come on for Gaston Ramirez and Juanmi.
Koeman’s bold decision to make a double substitution paid dividends for his side, as they doubled their advantage over the manager-less Aston Villa. Steven Davis picked up the ball just inside the opposition’s half, before sending a delicious ball over to his fellow substitute Dusan Tadic on the edge of the box. Tadic then shifted the ball onto his weaker right foot after an excellent touch on his left, to lift the ball over two Aston Villa defenders to find Graziano Pelle 16-yards out. Pelle let the ball drop onto his favoured right foot as he drove home a well-struck volley past Brad Guzan in the Aston Villa goal, who was helplessly rooted to the spot as The Saints secured their place in the quarter finals of the Capital One Cup.
Southampton enjoyed a far better second half in comparison to their woeful first half; however they were unable to keep a clean sheet as Villa won a penalty in the dying moments of the game. Substitute Jordan Ayew found his way into the Southampton area after a tricky run into the box, before being brought down by Virgil Van Dijk, leading to referee Keith Stroud to point to the spot and award Villa a late consolation. It seemed as though the penalty decision was a very dubious one, as replays show that Van Dijk appeared to take the ball before Ayew tripped over in the area; but the referee saw otherwise. Scott Sinclair then stepped up to convert the penalty for Aston Villa in the last minute of the four added on, to make the score line 2-1 at full time; but it was not enough for the visitors as Southampton had killed the game.
The Saints will now play Liverpool in the quarter finals of the Capital One Cup – how do you see them performing, and will they make the semi-finals?
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