Pep Guardiola has warned of the dangers of not turning up against Southampton after the Saints set up a Carabao Cup semi-final tie against Newcastle United by dumping Man City out of the competition.
Southampton may be languishing at the bottom of the Premier League, but Nathan Jones' sprung an almighty shock in the cup when they knocked the four-time winners out following a 2-0 win at St Mary's on Wednesday night. City were blown away by the aggression and intensity that Southampton played with and Sekou Mara and Moussa Djenepo both scored superb goals in the space of just five minutes before the half-hour mark. City, in contrast, did not have a shot on target for the first time since 2018.
Although Guardiola made changes, a similar line-up hammered Chelsea 4-0 in the FA Cup just a few days previously and experienced internationals like Joao Cancelo, Kyle Walker, Aymeric Laporte, Kalvin Phillips, Ilkay Gundogan, Phil Foden, Julian Alvarez and Jack Grealish all started against Southampton. However, Guardiola felt his side were 'not ready' on a night where the champions were 'not even close to what we are'.
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"Who knows if with Erling [Haaland] and Kevin [De Bruyne] it would have been different?" the City boss told reporters. "Maybe you know it, but I don't know it.
"We tried to do our best. We rotated the team when we play against Chelsea after the Premier League and everyone said, 'It's good. How nice are the decisions.' I understand how it works in this business.
"We try to do for everybody involved and everybody had to do it, and today it was not the case. Everyone. I had the feeling today that it didn't matter the line-up - we are performing this way.
"Don't tell me why. This is my experience. It didn't matter what line-up I chose today - it would have happened because we were not here. When this happens, Southampton deserve it."
You can see why Newcastle certainly won't be underestimating Southampton in the last four later this month. Eddie Howe has already admitted that 'we’ll have a very difficult semi-final to navigate whoever we play' and the Magpies head coach looks set to field his strongest XI in both legs.
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