It took 66 minutes for the first moment of quality but it was more than worth the wait. Sofiane Boufal, making his first start in Southampton’s stripes, caressed home a curling effort beyond a helpless Jordan Pickford in the Sunderland goal to light up an otherwise soulless affair, desperately short on quality.
It was goals like these that Southampton surely had hoped for after bringing the Morocco international to the club from Lille for a club-record fee over the summer.
For Sunderland, it was a third straight away defeat and another half-baked performance. It took 76 minutes for the visitors to test the Southamptongoalkeeper, Alex McCarthy, much to the frustration of the 1,500 travelling supporters that had made the 650-mile round trip. David Moyes, the Sunderland manager, felt his side should have been awarded a “stonewall penalty” for a challenge on Victor Anichebe late on, and his foul language aimed at the fourth official James Adcock in protest saw him sent to the stands.
“At the moment our luck’s out but it’ll change and the performances will lead to goals and results, I have no doubt about that,” Moyes said. “I think the last couple of performances have merited something. But their goal was a top-class goal, it costs a few bob to score those.”
In contrast, it is now one defeat in 10 for Southampton, who marched into the quarter-finals of the EFL Cup, with their only worry the striker Jay Rodriguez, who will be assessed on Thursday after “dizziness” prevented him lasting more than 26 minutes here.
When team news filtered through an hour before kick-off the nine changes made by Southampton and four by Sunderland from the clubs’ weekend matches, against Manchester City and West Ham United respectively, were perhaps an early warning for the painful viewing that followed. For the home fans, there were reasons to be excited, with five graduates from the esteemed Southampton academy, Jack Stephens, Sam McQueen, Harrison Reed, James Ward-Prowse and Lloyd Isgrove all starting.
Instead, at half-time, the exasperated look on Claude Puel’s face and a puff of the cheeks from Moyes said it all. The empty Kingsland stand – left alone by the television cameras present – opposite the dugouts told another story. But then there was Boufal, full of trickery and guile throughout. The forward provided a glimpse of his quality in the first half, turning Wahbi Khazri inside out after bamboozling Papy Djilobodji with a stepover before Patrick van Aanholt cleared. Boufal later overhit his pass for Ward-Prowse, but the forward was often a step ahead of his Southampton team-mates.
Boufal’s eventual reward, his first goal for Southampton, would then come. The forward brought José Fonte’s high ball down from the clouds before cutting inside and dispatching his curling effort beyond Pickford with his next touch. “He can score fantastic goals, I am not surprised because he has the technical ability to make these situations but its fantastic for him,” said Puel. “I think it’s important to be patient with him, he cannot do all the action, he cannot show all of his qualities yet but he’s a fantastic player and for now it’s important to take it step by step.”
Paddy McNair rattled a post with a header and there was Maya Yoshida’s tangling with Anichebe, but that all too familiar feeling of defeat was looming for Moyes once more. The evergreen Jermain Defoe was flung on in search of an equaliser, testing McCarthy from a tight angle, but Southampton held firm, with a trip to Arsenal awaiting them in the next round.
