New Southampton midfielder Mario Lemina played an influential part in Gabon’s crucial 2-1 win against the Ivory Coast in their latest 2018 World Cup qualifier on Tuesday, scoring a stunning goal.
Having been beaten 3-0 at home by the same opponents on Saturday, the Saints’ club-record signing and his teammates knew that they needed to pick up a positive result on the road and Axel Meye gave them the lead in the 20th minute.
Things got even better 10 minutes later when Lemina curled a shot into the top right-hand corner of the goal from outside the penalty area, in what proved to be the winner.
The south coast outfit were short of goals from the middle of the park last season, with Steven Davis, Oriol Romeu, Jordy Clasie and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg netting just two Premier League goals between them, and they will be hoping Lemina brings his shooting boots back with him ahead of their clash against Watford at St Mary’s this weekend.
Southampton supporters were quick to have their say on the 24-year-old’s goal via social media, with one person even likening his strike to one Matt Le Tissier might have scored back in the day.
Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…
