After a frustrating elimination
from Europa League, the Southampton squad is looking forward to redeem itself
in league play, where it counts the most, by marching in with a valuable win at
Vitality Stadium.
So small and cozy but
a hell hole for any squad that wants to come and play here with its fearsome crowd,
involved from start to finish an lately seeing how their Cherries are making
this campaign into a memorable one.
The outlook of this
match for the visiting Saints did not looked a bit positive after facing a squad
coming with a full momentum, as the AFC so far is performing a wondrous campaign.
As their man at the helm,
Eddie Howe touted as one day to take over the reins at the English National Squad,
for his way of directing his squad into contention for a trip into international
events as well make it into an all-around contender.
Everything looked
very challenging for the visiting Saints and they knew this was not to be a
picnic, until the unthinkable from a couple of its players and initial eleven
sent by their Manager Claude Puel.
With his, trademark 4-2-3-1
formation Eddie and his Cherries were ready to lite up an afternoon of pure
football heroics and net in what could been a much valuable victory and a
jumpstart to seventh place in the overall table.
Very well, the local
Boys did not wasted their time and when opportunity knocked in their door it’s
when Nathan Ake with a nice header in the 6th minute put the locals
ahead, sending the whole of the colossus of Kings Park and Dorset into a frenzy.
Still the Saints managed
to recover from this early goal and immediately they scored the equalizer via
Ryan Bertrand on the 14th minute to make this an interesting contest,
leaving the locals in shock, after a beautiful finish.
With a tied match,
the first half came to an end and plenty of expectations from those in attendance
to see a much-contested clash in its second half to see who was going to be the
first to deliver the tiebreaker or their share of the points.
This match was not far
from over, as the Saints started their dominance of the match and generating all
sorts of plays seeking the win and the go-ahead goal, when a heavenly play from
one of its utmost players in Jay Rodriguez.
After an injury that
sidelined him from play in the national team and Southampton, in this match all
of a sudden, we saw a renewed Rodriguez dispatching himself with a double dose
of goals over a surprised and astonished Cherries defense.
Sentencing the match
in the 48 and 85th minutes with a quality written in each
one of his goals, the first one with a series of passes until the final
addition to give the Saints the lead, but this was not to end here.
After getting a
bounce from his teammate and what seemed a lost play, Rodriguez took the volley
and finish off to what become the winning goal that put the final core at 3-1.
Not only marching but
also cruising to a notable win and on top of this, they climbed into seventh place
in the overall table with 24 points and a very challenging match next week against
league leaders Chelsea at home in Saint Mary’s Stadium.
A grand win and on
top a confidence booster for the Southampton squad as their next matches look a
bit disputed and for their boss Claude Puel, his ultimate of goals is to keep
his squad in the top spots and assure once again another European trip.
Very well, make them
a more resilient, competitive and top of the line squad that will not budge to
any of Premierships squads.
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