Saints try to repeat FA Cup win from 50 years ago
Southampton go to Wembley today in the FA Cup Semi-Final
Southampton’s trip to Wembley today comes 50 years after the club lifted the FA Cup thanks to a 1-0 victory over Manchester United in the 1976 final.
Tonda Eckert will go head-to-head with Pep Guardiola this evening, when Saints take on Premier League leaders Manchester City.
The 33-year-old is impressing at St Mary’s in his first senior managerial position, having gained extensive coaching experience in roles across Austria, Germany, England and Italy.
His former jobs include assistant coach of Bayern Munich’s under-17 team – a post he assumed shortly after Guardiola ended a trophy-laden three-year spell in charge of the Bundesliga giants to join City.
“There’s not many better than him – I don’t know if there is anyone,” Eckert said of Guardiola.
“For me personally, I think he had one of the biggest impacts to make Germany win the World Cup in 2014 because that was the spell where he worked at Bayern Munich.
“You could see just how much of what he has done at club level transformed over to the national team.
“Just look at him at the moment: he has a good tan, he looks very composed, he looks relaxed, he knows exactly what to do in those (decisive) moments of the season. One of the best – if not, the best – out there.”
In-form Southampton will temporarily set aside their Premier League promotion push in a bid to upset City at the national stadium following a shock 2-1 quarter-final success over Arsenal.
Eckert succeeded Will Still in November when fourth-placed Saints were 21st in the Sky Bet Championship following only two wins from 13 matches.
He initially joined the south-coast club as under-21 head coach last summer after working in the academy set-ups at Cologne, RB Salzburg, RB Leipzig and Bayern, followed by assistant roles with Barnsley and Genoa.
During his time as assistant coach of Salzburg’s under-18 side – under future Bournemouth boss Marco Rose – the team defeated Manchester City on their way to glory in the 2016-17 UEFA Youth League.
“We haven’t just played Man City that year, we’ve played Benfica, we’ve played PSG, we’ve played Atletico Madrid, and we’ve played Barcelona,” said Eckert, who came up against a City team containing Phil Foden.
“If you don’t go into games with the belief that you are going to win them, you don’t need to show up.
“I think you find that belief very deep inside, that’s something we transmit every single day and I think the players have that feeling.
“The underdog role or the favourite is more for the media but for us it’s the same: we have the belief that we go into the game to win another game of football.”
For Saints trio Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Shea Charles and Samuel Edozie, who graduated from City’s academy, the semi-final has even greater significance.
“I think the game is more than special enough for some of the players, and rightly so, it’s a big occasion,” added Eckert, whose team are 20 games unbeaten.
“But in the end, the mindset needs to be clear. We go there to perform, we go there to win a game of football, and that’s it.”