Southampton’s Nathan Redmond scored twice and fellow winger Moussa Djenepo bagged another in a 3-0 win over south-coast rivals Bournemouth on Saturday to secure a place in the FA Cup semi-finals for only the second time in 18 seasons.
Mali international Djenepo ran on to a precise through ball from Redmond to slot past goalkeeper Asmir Begovic and give the Saints the lead in the 37th minute, before Ralph Hasenhuettl’s side struck again seconds before the break at the Vitality Stadium.
Redmond collected a pass in midfield and weaved his way past Bournemouth’s defence to fire into the top corner as the Premier League side took control of their quarter-final with Jonathan Woodgate’s Championship (second-tier) side.
We had aspirations of getting (to Wembley) at the start of the season. It’s a chance for us to put the league form behind us,” Redmond told BT Sport. The Saints have lost 10 of their last 12 Premier League games.
“It’s good for us to get into the next round going into the international break where we can work on a few things while some of the boys are away.
“We know each other well and how to get the best out of each other. Today it clicked, so hopefully we can end the season on a high.”
The Saints began the game brightly and thought they had gone ahead 1-0 when Bournemouth’s Cameron Carter-Vickers bundled in a Kyle Walker-Peters pass into the penalty area. But the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) disallowed the goal for offside.
VAR ruled out another Southampton effort in the second half when Che Adams netted from distance, because Stuart Armstrong was deemed to have been offside in the build-up.
Redmond then scored with a fine finish to cap off a strong day for Southampton, who last won a major trophy when they claimed the FA Cup in 1976.
The Saints, who last reached the semi-finals in the 2017-18 campaign before losing to eventual champions Chelsea, will find out who they face in the last four of the competition at Wembley Stadium when the draw is made on Sunday.
Manchester City’s quadruple bid remained intact as late goals by Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin de Bruyne secured a 2-0 win at Everton in their FA Cup quarter-final clash on Saturday (March 20).
Everton erected a blue wall for most of the game and managed to frustrate Pep Guardiola’s side until Gundogan stooped to head home in the 84th minute for his 16th goal of the season.
Late substitute De Bruyne then made City’s passage safe with a clinical finish in the 90th minute.
Guardiola refuses to talk about City claiming an unprecedented clean sweep of trophies this season but it is hard to ignore the fact that his side look unstoppable.
They are running away with the Premier League title, face Tottenham Hotspur in the League Cup final next month and are up against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League last eight.
Everton did their best to halt the City bandwagon with a disciplined defensive display that drew praise from Guardiola.
“It was a really tough game. We saw the commitment from Everton, how focused they were, they defended really aggressively,” Guardiola said.
It was one of the toughest games we’ve played in the last four months.” City enjoyed 85% possession in the opening 25 minutes, passing the ball around in silky fashion without forcing Virginia into any meaningful action.
Everton looked to play on the counter-attack and went close to snatching the lead just before the interval when Yerry Mina’s glancing header was cleared by Oleksander Zinchenko.
City kept probing after the break and Virginia made a great save to deny Raheem Sterling’s shot from a cross by Fernandinho.
Phil Foden went close with a swerving shot soon after before City finally found a chink in Everton’s armour.
It was tough on Virginia who made a sensational save to tip Aymeric Laporte’s effort against the crossbar but Gundogan was alive to the opportunity and dived to head in the rebound.
De Bruyne, who had replaced Sterling after 80 minutes, then wrapped it up in style after being played through by Rodri.
Guardiola’s only current concern is hoping that all of his players return from international duty ready to continue City’s charge.
“Hopefully, the (Covid-19) bubbles are controlled. I’m looking forward to everyone coming back safe,” he said.
For Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti he accepted that his side had been beaten by “the best team in the world”.
“It was a good experience for us and there are no regrets,” the Italian said.
“We have 10 games in the league and we want to fight for our position in Europe next season.”
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