Southampton managed to end their pre-season with a 2-0 victory over Spanish side; Sevilla.
Goals from Stephens and Gabbiadini ensured a victory for the saints in their last game before the 2017/18 season begins. As Southampton look ahead to next Saturday’s match against Swansea, there is loads of positives to take from this game and obviously the win will give the whole team confidence. Swansea aren’t going to be easy opponents, they’ve signed well and have had a decent pre-season, but I’ll save that for the Swansea Match Preview.
It was a fairly comfortable game for Southampton against a tough opposition. Sevilla finished in the top 5 of La Liga last year so were not going to be ‘easy’ by any stretch of the imagination, especially after Saints’ 4-0 loss to FC Augsburg midweek. The game started fairly cagey with no side really grasping control, but Southampton grew into the match and ended up with that all important win.
Gabbiadini’s flick on landed at the feet of Jack Stephens and the defender wrapped his foot round it and it ricocheted off the Sevilla defender and ended up in the back of the net to give Saints a 1-0 lead. The second goal came from a well worked passage of play involving Tadic and Davis and the Northern Irish international put it on a plate for Gabbiadini and the Italian striker did what he does best. From then on it was purely about fitness levels with players like Gallagher,Flannigan and Bednarek all coming on as substitutes. In terms of the starting lineup, we would expect the team that began the match yesterday will again be the side that kicks off the Premier League season at home to Swansea in six days time.