Wigan’s glorious adventure ends
SOUTHAMPTON REACH SEMIFINALS
Mark Hughes enjoyed the ideal start to his Southampton reign as the struggling Premier League club reached the FA Cup semifinals with a 2-0 win at Wigan yesterday.
Hughes joined the club this week, replacing the sacked Mauricio Pellegrino and the former Saints striker had an immediate impact on his new team.
Hughes’ main goal is to help Southampton preserve their topflight status and they dropped into the relegation zone on Saturday as Crystal Palace won in the league while the Saints were preparing for their cup quarterfinal. Nevertheless, a trip to Wembley in the semifinals could provide a welcome tonic as the new manager tries to make his presence felt.
It was essential Southampton avoided following in the footsteps of Manchester City, West Ham and Bournemouth – top-flight sides who had all perished against third-tier giant-killers Wigan in the FA Cup this season.
They achieved that aim thanks to second-half goals from Pierre Emile Hojbjerg and Cedric Soares.
Southampton joined Tottenham and Manchester United in the last four, with Leicester and Chelsea meeting in the remaining quarterfinal later last night.
After a scrappy first half, Southampton took the lead in the 62nd minute.
Dusan Tadic’s corner was stabbed goalwards by Hojbjerg and Wigan’s Dan Burn couldn’t react quickly enough to clear off the line.
Manolo Gabbiadini had a chance to double Southampton’s advantage in the 73rd minute when he went past Burn and the Wigan centreback brought him down in the penalty area.
But Wigan goalkeeper Christian Walton plunged to his left and pushed Gabbiadini’s powerful spot-kick round the post.
Wigan applied plenty of pressure in the closing stages, but couldn’t emulate their epic fifthround success against Premier League leaders City.
In the first minute of stoppage-time, Southampton rightback Soares surged into the area before side-footing past Walton. – AFP