Swansea City vs Southampton. Premier League.
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Sunday 5 February 2017 08:27, UK
Gylfi Sigurdsson's winner boosted Swansea City's Premier League survival hopes as they beat Southampton 2-1 at the Liberty Stadium.on Tuesday night.
The Swans broke the deadlock after 38 minutes when Alfie Mawson scored just his second goal for the club, only for Shane Long to equalise 12 minutes after half-time.
However, Paul Clement recorded his first home win as Swansea manager thanks to Sigurdsson's impressive strike with 20 minutes to go as his side made it back-to-back league victories for the first time this season.
As a result, Swansea are now two points clear of the relegation zone, while Southampton remain in a midtable position.
Not surprisingly, Clement kept the same team who recorded the club's first-ever league win at Anfield last time out.
However, Luciano Narsingh - a January arrival from PSV Eindhoven - was fit enough to take his place on the bench after recovering from a calf injury, as was the returning Ki Sung-yueng.
The Saints, meanwhile, were without a whole host of first-team players, including the likes of James Ward-Prowse, Jay Rodriguez and Charlie Austin, who were also all absent from Saturday's 5-0 loss to Arsenal in the FA Cup.
Swansea headed into the encounter having lost their last three home league games, but after a nervy start, they gradually took control of proceedings, with Sigurdsson their driving force.
The Iceland international tested Fraser Forster with a stinging drive from the edge of the area that the goalkeeper was forced to turn behind at full stretch.
However, from Sigurdsson's resulting corner, Swansea opened the scoring as Mawson rose high at the near post to power a header past the helpless Forster, albeit with the help of a big deflection off Oriol Romeu.
The Swans' joy was short lived, though, as the visitors drew level after 57 minutes after a flowing move down the left involving full-back Ryan Bertrand, whose cross to the near post was swept home by Long from six yards out.
That equaliser gave Southampton's previously uncertain players new belief, as did the introduction of record-signing Sofiane Boufal, and at that stage of the contest there appeared only one winner.
However, Swansea claimed the spoils thanks to a lightning-quick counterattack after a Saints corner had been cleared to Narsingh on the edge of the area.
Captain Jack Cork found Tom Carroll, who released the Swans' debutant, and the Dutchman then picked out Sigurdsson, with the midfielder doing brilliantly to hook a volley past Forster for his seventh league goal of the season.
Player ratings
Swansea: Fabianski (7), Naughton (7), Fernandez (6), Mawson (7), Olsson (7), Cork (6), Carroll (8), Sigurdsson (9), Fer (8), Routledge (6), Llorente (6)
Used subs: Ki (6), Rangel (6), Narsingh (7)
Southampton: Forster (8), Cedric (6), Stephens (6), Yoshida (6), Bertrand (7), Davis (6), Romeu (6), Clasie (6), Redmond (6), Long (6), Tadic (5)
Subs: Boufal (8), McQueen (6), Sims (6)
Man of the Match: Gylfi Sigurdsson
