Manager Pep Guardiola, with the most star-studded squad in English club football, rotated his team after the convincing 4-0 victory over Chelsea in the FA Cup at the weekend.
But the City-manship he set up didn’t go to waste, so to speak.
There were plenty of national team players in the starting eleven, even though players like Erling Braut Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne and Riyad Mahrez had to start on the substitutes’ bench at St Mary’s Stadium.
But motivation can sometimes both match and surpass class.
The Premier League jumbo stunned City with two goals in the space of six first-half minutes.
Sekou Mara’s lead goal, his first for the club, was followed by a delicious lobbed goal by Moussa Djenepo to make it 2–0.
De Bruyne came on after the break, Haaland just over ten minutes later, but Southampton held tight and also had a few chances to win by even bigger numbers.
In the evening’s second quarter-final, Nottingham Forest got the upper hand at home against Wolverhampton when Willy Boly made it 1-0 early on. Raúl Jiménez’s equalizer midway through the second half sent the game to a penalty shootout.
Nottingham won it after goalkeeper Dean Henderson saved two penalties.
In the semi-finals, which are decided in a double-header at the end of January, Southampton-Newcastle and Nottingham-Manchester United meet.
The final will be played at Wembley on February 26.