Manchester City suffered a shock League Cup exit as struggling Southampton swept to a 2-0 victory in Wednesday's quarter-finals.

Pep Guardiola's side paid the price for a limp display and never recovered after first half goals from Sekou Mara and Moussa Djenepo at St Mary's.

City sit second in the Premier League, while Southampton are 26 points below them at the bottom of the table.

But that huge gap wasn't evident on a wet and windy night on the south coast that Guardiola will want to forget in a hurry. For the first time in 16 domestic cup quarter-finals, Guardiola had finished as a loser and he could have no complaints about the result.

City's surprise exit continued a worrying trend of lacklustre performances this season in games Guardiola would expect them to win, a failing that has left the champions trailing five points behind leaders Arsenal in the Premier League.

Guardiola, who has won the League Cup four times since arriving at City in 2016, will demand an immediate response in Saturday's crucial Premier League derby against Manchester United.

Mara put Southampton ahead in the 23rd minute.

There was worse to come for City five minutes later when Mali international Djenepo was allowed to advance unchecked before curling a superb 30-yard strike over Ortega, who was caught too far off his line.

Tired of City's lethargy, Guardiola sent on Kevin De Bruyne at the interval and Erling Haaland after 56 minutes.

Julian Alvarez was denied by Gavin Bazunu as City finally exerted some pressure but it was too little, too late.

Southampton have never won the League Cup, losing the 1979 and 2017 finals, and boss Nathan Jones will hope this surprise success can be the springboard to silverware and, more importantly, Premier League survival.

Southampton were joined in the semi-finals by Nottingham Forest, who beat Wolves 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw at the City Ground.