Boufal Strike Gives Southampton Victory Over Boro

Southampton    1    Middlesbrough    0

                                         Boufal 53

Sofiane Boufal’s fine strike gave Southampton all three points against Middlesbrough at St Mary’s, as Aitor Karanka’s side dropped down to 16^th in the table.

Boufal, who signed for the Saints for £16 million in the summer, provided a rare moment of quality when he received the ball from James Ward-Prowse and lashed a vicious effort past Victor Valdes on 53 minutes.

After that, Boro failed to register a shot on target and their patched-up forward line of Jordan Rhodes, Viktor Fischer, Christian Stuani rarely threatened Southampton’s charmed backline.

Once again Karanka’s men were disciplined and well-organised at the back, however this was also a reminder why they are the Premier League’s lowest scorers after fifteen games.

Their chances weren’t helped by injuries to Alvaro Negredo and Gaston Ramirez, who scored the only goal of the game in the victory over Hull last time out.

That forced Karanka to make two changes, as Rhodes and Stuani came into the side.

Southampton manager Claude Puel made five changes from the side which lost 3-0 to Crystal Palace in their last league game.

The Saints were also knocked out of the Europa league on Thursday night and there was more than a hint of anxiety around St Mary’s in the opening exchanges.

After a quiet start to the game, Boro almost took the lead when a loose pass from the hosts sent Fischer though on goal. The Danish international was forced wide of the goal by Virgil van Dijk but still managed to round goalkeeper Fraser Forster. However, after finally managing to sort his feet out, Fischer’s finish lacked power and was blocked by Saints captain Jose Fonte.

Southampton responded when Jay Rodriguez forced Valdes into action, however there were still several boos from the home fans at half time.

Puel made a tactical change at the interval, replacing Dustan Tadic with Nathan Redmond.

It proved to be an inspired decision and eight minutes after the re-start the hosts took the lead through Boufal’s brilliance.

Boro offered little going forward after that, and the visitors could have fallen further behind when Rodriguez scooped Redmond’s cross over the bar from close range in stoppage time.