Southampton put up a brilliant fight against Manchester United in the final of the EFL Cup, but ultimately missed out on their second major trophy.
Southampton’s Manolo Gabbiadini celebrates scoring their second goal
Southampton fans have been taking to Twitter in the wake of their brilliant EFL Cup final display against Manchester United, and while they have been full of praise for Manolo Gabbiadini, some slammed Claude Puel for one of his late decisions.
The Saints may have missed out on their second major trophy but deservedly won plenty of plaudits. Despite going 2-0 behind, the Saints dominated large parts of the game and were unlucky not to take the lead when Gabbiadini was wrongly adjudged to have been offside when he put the ball into the back of the net early on.
They looked to be getting their rewards however, as the Italian scored either side of the break to restore parity. And it seemed that the south coast club were the ones who were most likely to go on and win.
However, Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored his second in the dying minutes to give United a lead they would not surrender to leave Saints supporters understandably heartbroken.
Southampton’s Shane Long comes on as a substitute to replace Southampton’s Manolo Gabbiadini
Despite the anguish of losing it so late on, the Saints fans who have taken to social media to comment on the game have managed to stay fairly positive, and that is largely down to Gabbiadini.
The January signing has now scored five in his first three games for the club, and his second at Wembley was a piece of absolute brilliance. Of course, it must not be forgotten that he could have scored a hat-trick had the linesman’s flag stayed down in the first-half.
Southampton manager Claude Puel
However, it was not a completely positive reaction to what their own team did as Puel’s decision to replace Gabbiadini with Shane Long with seven minutes to go received plenty of criticism. While Long’s introduction seemed inevitable, the fact that the striker was the man to come off seemed perplexing despite his obvious weariness, as he looked to be the most likely to find the Saints’ third goal.
Here is the best of the reaction…
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