Pep Guardiola hailed “brilliant” Phil Foden after his stunning strike capped off Manchester City’s dominant 4-1 FA Cup win over Southampton at St Mary’s.
City remain on course for a treble after the emphatic quarter-final victory, capped off by Foden’s strike for their third goal.
Raheem Sterling had opened the visitors’ account when he tapped home in the 12th minute but it was cancelled out by Aymeric Laporte’s own goal just before the break.
Kevin De Bruyne’s 62nd-minute penalty restored City’s lead before their performance was capped off by a Foden’s strike from the edge of the box and Riyad Mahrez also putting his name on the scoresheet in the 78th minute.
The Manchester City manager believes there are not many players in the world who can pull off the strike of the 21-year-old England international.
“A few, there are not many but a few, (he is) one of them who has it,” Guardiola said.
“He has an incredible shot, he’s quick, fast, he’s a fantastic player – we know it. Close to the box he has a sense of goal, he was really brilliant, he was really good.”
Southampton fought hard in the match, having already achieved two draws against City in the Premier League this season, and even Guardiola admitted it was a closer-fought contest than the scoreline would suggest.
“It was a tight game, it was in the Premier League games against Southampton because of the quality they have, they are incredibly organised and in front of the ball they are so aggressive and of course have a good build-up.
“But after 2-1, the second half we were much much better and in the end the quality from Phil and Riyad made the difference.”
The result sees Southampton slump to a fourth successive defeat in all competitions but manager Ralph Hasenhuttl praised his side for their passion.
“Everyone in this stadium enjoyed the game, everybody saw a team here fighting for everything,” the Saints manager said.
“This is what we want to do. It worked very well today. They tried everything against us and it is super tough but they never found the rhythm to play around us.
“After their first goal they wanted to go for the second goal immediately and we got the equaliser and the game was open again.
“This is what you have to do against such a team – never hide, try to be brave and play football in the right moments. Very proud of what we have done today.”
