Southampton awoke from their Premier League slumber to breeze into the FA Cup semi-finals courtesy of a comprehensive victory over their south-coast neighbours, Bournemouth. Ralph Hasenhüttl again named his strongest available team and they outclassed their Championship opponents from start to finish, with the nerveless Nathan Redmond at the double after Moussa Djenepo capped a slick move to open the scoring.
How Southampton relished this trip, a welcome distraction from their league travails following a run of 10 defeats in 12 matches that ensures there is work to do to secure their top-flight status. “We were criticised for our games in the league and rightly because we have not been so lively in the past weeks,” Hasenhüttl said. “We now have a target for the season. We can still achieve a lot. We lost a little bit of contact to the good spots in the table because [of] our not-so-good performances in the second half of the season. It will be sure a strong opponent waiting for us at Wembley, but everything is possible.”
