Southampton stun Man City to book a place in the semi-finals

Manchester City came into this game as firm favourites to get to the semi-finals and the odds were heavily stacked against the hosts. 

Pep Guardiola rested a number of key players with the likes of Stefan Ortega, Sergio Gomez and Cole Palmer starting but it backfired as The Saints won the game 2-0 thanks to goals from Sekou Mara and Moussa Djenepo

The early proceedings began in rather surprising fashion as City looked unable to cope with the high pressing Southampton employed all over the pitch. 

Pep Guardiola's men looked rattled and they were stunned when Southampton took the lead. Sekou Mara applied a fine finish after City sloppily squandered possession.

City have won this competition five of the last seven seasons and saw off Liverpool in the last round but found Southampton’s defence difficult to break down despite dominating possession as usual.

There was no real response from City and Moussa Djenepo soon doubled the hosts' lead with a sublime 30-yard lob that caught goalkeeper Stefan Ortega out.

Guardiola’s experiment with Kyle Walker as one of City’s two central defenders proved short-lived when he made three substitutions at the break, including the introduction of De Bruyne.

As expected, his impact was immediate: an inch-perfect through ball played in Álvarez but the Argentina forward could not hit the target.

Erling Haaland came off the bench for City but the best he could manage was a half-hearted attempt at a scorpion kick that sailed harmlessly over the crossbar, to the delight of the Southampton fans.

City were sloppy throughout and did not even muster a shot on target in what was a thoroughly disappointing performance. At the final whistle, Southampton’s fans celebrated wildly in a season that has brought little cheer.