Key events
Show key events only
Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
Full time: Southampton 1-1 Middlesbrough
Extra-time, here we come. It was an incident-packed game and highly entertaining at times. But both teams look exhausted now, and I don’t think anyone would complain if it went straight to penalties.
Updated at 17.02 EDT
90 min +7: One last chance for Southampton? They have a throw on the right.
Updated at 17.01 EDT
90 min +6: Boro think about a counterattack, but they look quite happy for Jander to stab the ball out for a throw and save them the bother.
90 min +5: Brittain clatters Charles. A late set-piece for Saints …
90 min +3: Ayling and Harwood-Bellis are having words again. This time, it ends more amicably. We are going to have extra-time, it seems, and judging by the dwindling energy levels of both teams, it’ll be a stalemate until penalties.
Updated at 16.57 EDT
90 min +1: Fry challenges Larin in the area as he attempts to clear! The fans want a penalty! File that one under “seen them given”.
Updated at 16.56 EDT
90 min: Five minutes added, minimum. Ayling loses it, and Larin fires a powerful shot at Brynn, who is equal to it.
Updated at 16.54 EDT
88 min: Extra-time looms nearer. Southampton are huffing and puffing but not posing any serious threat right now. Samuel Edozie is also on for Saints. Scienza and Stewart both off.
Updated at 16.53 EDT
85 min: Azaz is fouled and Southampton have a free-kick in a dangerous spot, on their right wing. Malanda clears it for a corner.
It’s hard to remember the last time Middlesbrough really threatened the Saints goal.
Updated at 16.50 EDT
84 min: Both teams are tiring. Feels like it’s going a bit flat, like they’ve both settled for extra-time … Now here is Cyle Larin, on for Southampton, who has scored six goals in his last nine games.
83 min: Change for the visitors: Leo Castledine is on for Strelec.
81 min: Now there is more argy-bargy, when Morris goes to get a ball for a throw-in, but the ballboy won’t give it to him. A few of the substitutes get “in and around” it.
Sound the handbags klaxon. Photograph: Sean Ryan/IPS/ShutterstockShare
Updated at 16.57 EDT
80 min: “Just a quick note,” emails Karl.
“Definitely not a contribution either way in the “everyone should or should not pronounce every foreign-to-them word correctly” debate, to be clear – the commentator pronouncing it “Matski” is probably an attempt at the correct Japanese pronunciation, where some syllables that are written out in the romanised spelling are often swallowed or elided. Thus the family name Matsuki should sound closer to “Matski”, and not “Mat-soo-kee”, as most English speakers would probably default to.”
Thank you.
78 min: Malanda coughs up a foul on Azaz near halfway and is booked. Southampton continue to look the more threatening now, after Boro’s storming start. Will we have a winner in normal time?
76 min: Scienza battles on. He wins a corner. The set-piece is headed over by Harwood-Bellis with the goalie nowhere near it.
75 min: “If this games goes to penalties,” writes John Brennan, “I’d advise either team not to have Finn Azaz or Alan Browne take penalties after their diabolical efforts for Ireland in Prague!”
73 min: We can be sure that the EFL are praying for Boro to win this, given the fact that Southampton imminently face a misconduct hearing that could even see them thrown out of the playoffs. It could be a real mess.
Updated at 16.37 EDT
73 min: Middlesbrough change: Alan Browne is on for Conway.
71 min: Space to attack for Southampton. Azaz hits a shot from the edge that is blocked. Conway has gone down injured for the visitors, he looks hurt, and the players all go to their coaches during the break in play.
Updated at 16.35 EDT
68 min: After a Saints move breaks down, McGree sends a lovely raking pass over for Whittaker on the Boro right. He cuts inside and is lucky to get a corner after a poor off-target effort. That was a waste because the Southampton defence, initially, was badly out of shape.
Updated at 16.33 EDT
66 min: Saints change: Flynn Downes on for Matsuki.
I’m glad, in a way, because the commentator seems to think he’s called “Matski”.
Updated at 16.29 EDT
65 min: Next up, Fry is at the far post from a Boro free-kick. He’s in plenty of space but his header, then cross-shot, are blocked.
63 min: Saints counterattack! And Scienza is brought down by Ayling in the area … Southampton want a penalty, of course, but the referee isn’t having it! There was a definite push, but not enough for Madley to point to the spot. Cue fan fury, not to mention manager fury.
Leo Scienza, like the Southampton fans, claims for a penalty after hitting the deck following a challenge by Boro’s Luke Ayling. Photograph: Warren Little/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 16.48 EDT
62 min: Does feel like Saints have had the best of it, refereeing-wise, but this remains finely balanced. Will we have a winner in 90 minutes?
60 min: “Ok so I am a bit partial,” emails Stefan. “And there’s nothing more boring than whining about the referee. But I count the following which I’m going to call borderline at best having gone Southampton’s way.
1. The penalty not given before Middlesbrough’s opener.
2. The foul by Stewart on Morris before his goal.
3. The foul given against Conway when one on one.
4. The handball by Matsuri.
“Am I missing any?.”
59 min: Manning swivels and hits a shot for Southampton from close range, that is deflected off Ayling, just wide! Boro are really under it at the moment … they deal with one corner, then another … Shea Charles has a shot blocked from the edge.
Updated at 16.23 EDT
57 min: Boro have a throw in an advanced position. Brittain lobs it in. Ayling tries to flick it on but straight out for a goal kick.
55 min: Southampton are in the ascendancy now. It feels like they are the more clinical of the teams, for all the positivity that Middlesbrough have displayed, and Eckert’s team perhaps won’t need more than one or two clear chances to win this. We shall see.
Updated at 16.20 EDT
51 min: A free-kick for Boro leads to a big shout for a penalty. On replay, it looks like a handball by Matsuki. The referee signals that he thinks it was off the shoulder.
The ball strikes Kuryu Matsuki of Southampton but the Boro players get no dice from the referee. Photograph: MDI/ShutterstockShare
Updated at 16.24 EDT
50 min: Speaking of fouls, the telly director is replaying what looks a clear foul by Stewart before he scored the equaliser for Southampton.
Updated at 16.13 EDT
48 min: Southampton’s Harwood-Bellis scythes down Conway in midfield. He claims he got the ball, and he did, but he got a lot of the man too and that’s a foul.
47 min: Scienza is still on. He doesn’t look to be moving freely.
ShareSecond half kick-off!
And I’ve just switched the heating on. Let’s go!
Sky Sports report that Ayling of Middlesbrough has claimed Southampton’s Harwood-Bellis made a discriminatory comment towards him after that foul on Scienza. Also, it is said that other players have confirmed what was said. The referee, Andy Madley, will be including the incident in his post-game report.
Ayling did look genuinely furious.
Updated at 16.10 EDT
A smattering of half-time reading:
Updated at 15.54 EDT
Half time: Southampton 1-1 Middlesbrough
Tasty, pretty tasty.
45 min +5: Middlesbrough’s Conway is penalised for a soft foul when he would have been one-on-one with the keeper. Then Peretz pathetically tries to get him sent off after there is a bit of contact when the goalie comes to grab the ball and take the free-kick.
Updated at 15.52 EDT
45 min +2: Southampton have mostly been second-best but it seems like they will go in level at the break. We’ll have a minimum of six minutes added.
Updated at 15.52 EDT
Goal! 45 min: Southampton 1-1 Middlesbrough (Stewart)
Brittain wrestles Scienza to the floor, off the ball, just outside the penalty area. The Brazilian is clearly, and rightly, a source of concern. Bree sends the resulting free-kick to the far post, where a volley by Manning is blocked, parried up in the air by Brynn, and Stewart is there to outjump Harwood-Bellis and nod the ball in!
Ross Stewart rises highest … Photograph: Warren Little/Getty ImagesAnd puts the home side back on level terms. Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PAWhich pleases the home fans. Photograph: Kieran McManus/ShutterstockShare
Updated at 15.59 EDT
44 min: Scienza tries again down the Southampton right. It takes two defenders to stop him and eventually he fouls Whittaker. The crowd roar their disapproval.
42 min: The free-kick, after all that controversy, is whipped in and very dangerous but is cleared for a corner by Ayling. From the corner, Azaz hits a rasping shot from the edge, and Brynn dives on it.
Updated at 15.44 EDT
39 min: The referee, Andy Madley, goes to have a chat with the managers … and something is obviously said, and the managers look ready to square up to each other! They virtually have to be separated!
Updated at 15.45 EDT
38 min: Scienza, moving better after that injury, makes a jinking run in an advanced area, trying to turn away from Ayling. Ayling brings him down, and it’s a free-kick, and Ayling is incensed. It did look like a dive. He goes in the book, but the row with the referee seems to continue, and he appears to be in danger of a second yellow card. Ayling and Harwood-Bellis were also having words.
Ayling is furious about something, and presumably not just what he thought was a dive by Scienza.
Luke Ayling (right) has words with Taylor Harwood-Bellis. Photograph: Warren Little/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 16.26 EDT
37 min: Nathan Wood of Southampton is booked for dissent.
35 min: On balance of play, 2-0 would not flatter Middlesbrough. They have made most of the running and kept Southampton’s forward line very quiet for the most part.
35 min: “The goal coming from Ayling Brittain on the right wing,” emails Alex.
“And they say satire is dead.”
Excellent.
31 min: Brittain hammers another shot at the Saints goal after a corner. It’s deflected but Peretz makes a good save.
Southampton break, and Stewart goes down in the penalty area, wanting a penalty. The fans wail, but the refereee is unmoved. And now Boro break again …
There was a little shirt pull on Stewart by Brittain …
Updated at 15.34 EDT
30 min: Manning swings in a vicious curling cross from the free-kick. Fry clears it with an excellent header at the near post. Scienza is back on, but not moving well.
Updated at 15.31 EDT
28 min: Scienza has gone down with what looks a painful injury after an accidental clash with a Boro boot. The referee has a chat with Brynn, the Middlesbrough goalie, presumably about perceived timewasting.
Updated at 15.29 EDT
25 min: Middlesbrough stitch together a lovely passing move, with Ayling among those showing composure and pinging the ball around in midfield. They engineer a chance for Conway, whose powerful shot is blocked, and the ball goes out for a corner. In the next phase of play Brittain belts a low shot at Peretz but the goalkeeper deals with it easily.
23 min: Manning turns a pass inside, in an advanced area for Southampton on their left, but Morris intercepts. The first 15 minutes was really open, and it’s tightened up a bit now. The co-commentator says “Middlesbrough are taking their time already …”
Updated at 15.25 EDT
21 min: Now Scienza tries a cross from the Southampton left. But it’s claimed by Brynn in goal. (I saw Scienza tearing Charlton a new one at The Valley back in November, when Saints won 5-1. Good little player.)
Updated at 15.23 EDT