Sonny: “As soon as Lucas scored, I knew we could win”

There was a moment last night when Heung-Min Son felt a place in the fifth round of the FA Cup was up for grabs.

That was in the 78^th minute of our fourth round replay against Southampton, when Lucas Moura’s superb finish put us back on level terms at 2-2.

We led early via Tanguy Ndombele’s deflected strike, but Southampton had the better of it, levelled through Shane Long and went ahead on 72 minutes via Danny Ings.

It looked a big ask from there but we’d hung in there all night and that second goal sparked a reaction. Lucas soon drilled home that equaliser and Sonny raced to the net to grab the ball for the restart.

“Southampton did a good job but as soon as Lucas scored, I felt like we could score one more goal,” said Sonny. “I knew we could win without extra time. I always believe in our team.”

He was right to believe, and our South Korea star would settle the tie from the spot 10 minutes later.

Dele broke from deep, exchanged passes with Gedson before finding Sonny with a world-class pass. Sonny was upended by Angus Gunn, picked himself up and converted into the corner from the penalty spot to set up a fifth round tie back at home against Norwich City on Wednesday 4 March.

“I was calm,” he said, asked how he felt standing over the decisive penalty. “I try to practice every day after training. It was 2-2 and when you step up before the penalty, of course you are a little nervous, but I was very confident because I’ve practiced so many times. I hit it well and I’m so happy we bounced back in this game, we were 2-1 down and to win 3-2 means a lot to us.

“I’m very proud of this team. We weren’t perfect, we didn’t play our best, but the result is most important and we’re into the next round. We showed great character to win this game and now we play another home game against Norwich, in front of our fans, so let’s see if we can get to another round.”