Stoke City 2-3 Southampton: Pelle seals dramatic late win - 7M sport

Stoke City 2-3 Southampton: Pelle seals dramatic late win



Posted Thursday, October 30, 2014 by Goal.com

Stoke City 2-3 Southampton: Pelle seals dramatic late win

The Italian scored a brilliant opener before later burying the winner at the death, while the Potters had Peter Crouch shown a second yellow card after mounting a two-goal revival

Southampton beat Stoke City for the second time in five days as they enjoyed a 3-2 victory in the League Cup.

After a 1-0 Premier League win at St Mary's Stadium on Saturday, Graziano Pelle set the Saints on their way at the Britannia Stadium with a thunderous strike from 25 yards in the first half.

Shane Long bagged his first goal for the club to give Ronald Koeman's side the half-time lead but the visitors let their control slip and the Potters riposted after the break through Steven N'Zonzi and Mame Biram Diouf.

The latter's goal looked to have prompted extra time but Pelle buried a second with two minutes remaining of the 90 to send Southampton through, just after Peter Crouch was sent off for a second booking.

The Saints began like a side brimming with confidence and took the lead in just the sixth minute. Pelle took full advantage of being afforded too much space when superbly curling a 25-yard effort off the inside of Asmir Begovic's left-hand post and into the net.

Stoke - boasting an attacking line-up with Bojan Krkic, Marko Arnautovic and Diouf brought into Hughes's XI - were unable to carve out a clear-cut opportunity as they sought to respond.

The hosts then fell further behind in the 31st minute when Long - one of the new faces in a Southampton line-up featuring four changes from the weekend - turned Steven Davis's cross through the legs of Begovic to cap a superb passing move.

Jonathan Walters had a goal ruled out for offside before Pelle almost made things worse for Stoke, uncharacteristically blazing a half-volley over the bar after being found by Dusan Tadic's clever ball.

Whatever Hughes said to his players at half-time appeared to do the trick as N'Zonzi, capitalising on the visitors' defenders backing off, unleashed a powerful strike into the bottom-left corner from just outside the box.

Yet the home side were then left thanking their goalkeeper as Begovic twice rushed from his line to deny Long and Victor Wanyama.

Stoke spurned a great chance midway through the second half as a two-on-one went to waste when Diouf was somehow not picked out by the disappointing Bojan, who was unsurprisingly withdrawn soon after.

The home side continued to put their opponents' goal under siege and, having cleared a series of corners with last-gasp challenges, Southampton finally succumbed when Diouf headed in at the back post after Phil Bardsley had flicked on Charlie Adam's set-piece.

There was still to be another twist in the tale as Crouch, who had replaced Bojan, picked up a second yellow card in quick succession.

It was to prove a defining moment, too, as the ball dropped to Pelle off Erik Pieters from the resulting free kick, and the striker instinctively placed the ball beyond Begovic.



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