Kamaldin Suleimana ended a 37-game goal drought and Tyler Dibling scored twice as Southampton recorded their first win under manager Ivan Juric with a 3-0 win over Swansea in the FA Cup third round.
Club record signing Suleimana, who cost £22m from French side Rennes two years ago, found the net for the first time since May 2023 as he edged past Premier League bottom side St Mary’s.
The Dibling teenager took advantage of Sulemana to grab Saints’ second before adding another in the second period to finish in the Sky Bet Championship with the opposition sitting in mid-table.
The comfortable victory for the 1976 FA Cup winners, who are 10 points adrift of safety in the top flight, was only their fourth in 25 games this season and ended an 11-game winless streak that stretched back to November 2.
Southampton host Championship contenders Burnley in the fourth round early next month.
Manager Yurik has overseen a run of three straight league defeats since replacing the sacked Russell Martin just before Christmas following last weekend’s 5-0 home defeat by Brentford.
The Croatian stuck to the starting nine who were baffled by the Bees, while Swansea manager Liam Williams started second-choice goalkeeper John McLoughlin and dropped nine-goal top scorer Liam Cullen to the bench in his back four.
the changes.
Ghana international Sulemana and full-back Kyle Walker-Peters threatened twice in the opening stages before the home side took the lead in the 20th minute in a first-run fashion.
After Aaron Ramsdale’s goal-kick was saved by Leslie Ugochukwu, Swans keeper McLoughlin was left struggling to reach the bouncing ball, allowing Sulmana to calmly find the net unguarded from the edge of the 18-yard box.
area.
Swansea, who started the new year along the south coast with a 4-0 thrashing of Saints’ bitter rivals Portsmouth, enjoyed a period of dominance before falling behind 10 minutes before the break.
Sulemana was the creator on this occasion, passing with Ugochukwu on the left, before feeding Dibling’s low center to head home from inside the six-yard box.
The visitors offered nothing of note in attack in a relatively one-sided opening period and relied on McLaughlin to keep out Taylor Harwood-Bellis’ header from a Ryan Manning corner early in the second.
As Southampton continued to control, the home fans were desperate for a third goal to avoid extra-time and possibly penalties.
Diebling, 18, duly did with 25 minutes from time, drilling into the bottom left corner after Kyle Naughton failed to clear Manning’s low cross from the left.
Swansea almost had a consolation eight minutes from time when substitute Joe Allen fired inside the left post after Will Smallbone mishandled a cross from goalkeeper Ramsdale.
But Southampton, who almost added a fourth through substitute Adam Armstrong, were rarely tested as they eased up before resuming at Manchester United on Thursday.
What the managers said…
Southampton boss Ivan Juric. “I am very happy, very satisfied, I think we played a good game.
“I saw a lot of good things, some not so good, but we are very satisfied, happy.
“Hopefully it’s a new start. It’s the FA Cup and now we want to prepare very well against Manchester United (in our next game) to be more competitive than the last game (against Brentford).
“I think we can do it.”
Swansea boss Luke Williams on the difference between the parties. “Premier League quality up front probably combined with a goalkeeper who hasn’t played for a long time and two centre-backs who haven’t played for a long time.
“I really think we have a good goalkeeper, we have two really good players playing at centre-back, but recently with no minutes and against that competition, it has been difficult for them.
“The main thing is that we played against a top team and we couldn’t handle it.
“Our biggest problem was that we were so sloppy with our formation. We gave the ball away so cheaply and we can’t afford to do that against a Premier League team.”
