Manager Guardiola admits his team were \u2018not prepared\u2019 as they suffer shock 2-0 defeat
\n LONDON
\nPep Guardiola admitted Manchester City were \u201cnot prepared\u201d as they suffered a shock 2-0 defeat against struggling Southampton in the League Cup quarter-finals on Wednesday.
\nGuardiola\u2019s side paid the price for a limp display and never recovered after first half goals from Sekou Mara and Moussa Djenepo at St Mary\u2019s.
\nCity sit second in the Premier League, while Southampton are languishing at the bottom of the table.
\nBut that huge gap wasn\u2019t evident on a wet and windy night on the south coast that Guardiola will want to forget in a hurry.
\nFor the first time in 16 domestic cup quarter-finals, Guardiola had finished as a loser and he had no complaints about the result.
\n\u201cThe better team won. We didn\u2019t play good. There are many games you can start not good and overcome but we didn\u2019t do it,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cWhen you are not prepared to play this game you arrive one inch late and don\u2019t score a goal. When you are prepared you score the goal. \u201cToday was a bad night, the opponent was better so we have to congratulate them. We didn\u2019t deserve to win.\u201d
\nCity\u2019s 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.
\nGuardiola will demand an immediate response in Saturday\u2019s crucial Premier League derby against Manchester United.
\nHe made four changes from Sunday\u2019s 4-0 FA Cup third round rout of Chelsea, with Kalvin Phillips handed his first City start since his \u00a342 million ($51 million) move from Leeds last year.
\nPhillips 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.
\nPhillips\u2019 flop was in keeping with City\u2019s unusually limp display, with their lack of poise and purpose visible right from the start.
\nSouthampton went ahead in the 23rd minute when Lyanco cut out a loose pass from Sergio Gomez and delivered a low cross that France Under-21 international Mara swept home for his first goal for the club.<\/p>\n
Five minutes later, Mali international Djenepo was allowed to advance unchecked before curling a superb 30-yard strike over Stefan Ortega, who was caught too far off his line.<\/p>\n
Guardiola sent on Kevin De Bruyne at the interval and Erling Haaland after 56 minutes, but his lethargic team finished without a shot on target.<\/p>\n
Southampton have never won the League Cup, losing the 1979 and 2017 finals, and they will face Newcastle in a two-legged semi-final later in January.<\/p>\n
Saints boss Nathan Jones will hope this surprise success can be the springboard to silverware and, more importantly, Premier League survival.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve gone through a lot recently, people questioning a lot of things. That goes a little way to justifying why we\u2019re here and what team we\u2019re trying to create,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n
Nottingham Forest earned a last four tie against Manchester United after beating Wolves 4-3 on penalties following a 1-1 draw at the City Ground.<\/p>\n
After last weekend\u2019s embarrassing FA Cup loss against second tier Blackpool, Forest are back on the Wembley trail as they reached the League Cup semi-finals for the first time since 1992.<\/p>\n
They took the lead through a close-range finish from former Wolves centre-back Willy Boly in the 18th minute.<\/p>\n
Raul Jimenez grabbed Wolves\u2019 64th minute equaliser, but Dean Henderson was Forest\u2019s shoot-out star as he saved penalties from Joe Hodge and Ruben Neves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Manager Guardiola admits his team were \u2018not prepared\u2019 as they suffer shock 2-0 defeat LONDON Pep Guardiola admitted Manchester City were \u201cnot prepared\u201d as they suffered a shock 2-0 defeat against struggling Southampton in the League Cup quarter-finals on Wednesday. Guardiola\u2019s side paid the price for a limp display and never recovered after first half […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-307048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n