Wolves hosted Southampton in the fifth round of the FA cup and saw themselves fall to a 2-0 defeat with goals from man of the match Danny Ings and Stuart Armstrong as Wolves failed to create many chances and paid the price as the Saints defence kept out the Wolves attack.
Man-of-the-match Danny Ings and Stuart Armstrong fired Southampton in the FA Cup quarter-finals as they won 2-0 at Premier League rivals Wolves on Thursday night.
Ings scored shortly the after interval while Armstrong added another in injury time to end the Saints’ four-game winless run as Wolves were made to pay for a lack of final-third spark.
Wolves made six changes from Sunday’s 0-0 Premier League draw with Leicester as they chose to rest some key players. John Ruddy, Romain Saiss, Ki-Jana Hoever, Morgan Gibbs-White, Vitinha and Fabio Silva were all additions to the starting XI.
Southampton came into the game off the back of a loss 3-2 loss at nine-men Newcastle. They made five changes bringing in Fraser Forster, Mohammed Salisu, Kyle Walker-Peters, Moussa Djenepo and Armstrong.
Southampton started the game the better of the two sides and saw a flurry of chances fall their way. Armstrong saw a powerful shot fumbled by Ruddy, but the goalkeeper was able to gather the ball before a Saints player could capitalise. Ings also saw a chance fall his way in the ninth minute but the shot was blocked early and nothing more could be made from it.
Wolves responded and Gibbs-White had a penalty shout denied when he went pass Salisu and appeared to be shoved off the ball but VAR didn’t believe that there was a clear and obvious error so play continued.
Nathan Redmond saw a chance come his way in the 41st minute but fluffed his lines. Ryan Bertrand put a good ball into the back post but Redmond didn’t connect properly and saw the ball loop up for Ruddy to catch.
Early in the second half Armstrong saw the best chance of the game come his way but he missed the target. Again, it was another fine delivery by left back Bertrand with his low cross this time finding Armstrong free in the middle of the box but his shot was dragged wide of the open net and the chance was lost.
In the 49th minute Bertrand played a perfectly-timed ball in behind to Ings put the visitors ahead rather fortuitously, as original shot bounced back off Ruddy on to him and into the Wolves goal. VAR briefly checked for offside but the goal stood and Southampton had the lead.
Wolves almost got themselves back in the game straight away as Salisu was dispossessed in his own box and the ball was fired into Silva who sent his shot way over the bar from close range. Salisu quickly made up for his mistake as Wolves had another chance which was blocked at the last second.
The Saints again saw a big chance fall their way in the 68th minute when Redmond was played in behind with only Ruddy to beat but as he cut inside on to his left foot his effort was saved well by the onrushing goalkeeper.
Wolves almost levelled 11 minutes later when a cross was played along Southampton’s six-yard box. Salisu completely missed the ball which fell to Adama Traore who shot low to bring out an excellent goalline save from Forster with his feet to preserve the visitors’ lead.
The tie was put to bed in the 90th minute when Ruddy received a strong backpass and he inadvertently played it straight to Southampton substitute Nathan Tella who laid the ball off to Armstrong. The Scotland international still had a lot to do from a tight angle but he bent a finish in off the post to put the Saints into the last eight of the FA Cup.
The win means that Southampton will play south coast neighbours Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium in the quarter-finals – a tie they will go into as favourites.
With Wolves out of the competition their focus will turn to the Premier League and their second game in three days against Southampton as they travel to St Mary’s for Sunday’s midday clash.
By Evan Clem
