Carabao Cup: 'Sloppy' Man City Suffer Exit To Resilient Southampton

Sloppy Manchester City suffered a shocking Carabao Cup exit as struggling Southampton swept to a 2-0 victory in Wednesday's quarterfinals.

Pep Guardiola's side paid the price for a limp display and never recovered after first-half goals from Sekou Mara and Moussa Djenepo at St Mary's.

City sit second in the Premier League, while Southampton are 26 points below them at the bottom of the table.

 

But that huge gap wasn't evident on a wet and windy night on the south coast that Guardiola will want to forget in a hurry.

For the first time in 16 domestic cup quarterfinals, Guardiola had finished as a loser and he could have no complaints about the result.

City's surprise exit continued a worrying trend of lacklustre performances this season in games Guardiola would expect them to win, a failing that has left the champions trailing five points behind leaders Arsenal in the Premier League.

Guardiola, who has won the League Cup four times since arriving at City in 2016, will demand an immediate response in Saturday's crucial Premier League derby against Manchester United.

He made four changes from Sunday's 4-0 FA Cup third-round rout of Chelsea, with Kalvin Phillips handed his first City start since his £42 million move from Leeds last year.

Phillips was labelled overweight by Guardiola after he returned from England duty at the World Cup and the midfielder hardly made the Spaniard eat his words with a largely anonymous display that ended with his substitution after 63 minutes.

Phillips's flop was in keeping with City's unusually limp display, with their lack of poise and purpose visible right from the start.

Duje Caleta-Car's low strike drew a fine save from Stefan Ortega before Mara shot wastefully wide.

City failed to heed the warning and Mara put Southampton ahead in the 23rd minute.