Laudrup delighted with ´dominate´ Swansea

20 January 2013 03:22

Swansea manager Michael Laudrup was thrilled with his side's 3-1 win over Stoke City at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday.

Teenager Ben Davies scored his first senior goal while Jonathan de Guzman struck a second half double in the comfortable victory with Michael Owen nabbing a consolation goal at the death for the visitors.

The win comes at a perfect time for the Welsh side as they prepare to take on Chelsea in the second leg of their Capital One Cup semi-final on Wednesday and Laudrup believes his side will now head into the tie full of confidence.

"Winning is always the perfect preparation, winning and no injuries," he said after the victory.

"I think it was a very good performance, we dominated from the first minute.

"In the first half Stoke had to defend very deep and the only bad point of the first half was we did not score from the two or three good chances we had, but apart from that I was pleased with everything.

"In the second half we continued, but I knew we needed something special to score the first goal, if we scored the first goal I was sure we would win.

"I obviously did not expect it to come from a run from the full-back, so it is great for Ben and he deserves everything for what he is doing and this will be a very special day for him.

"The second goal was a fantastic free-kick. I have seen Jonathan score a lot of these goals in training so it is nice to see it in a game and the third was the best of the afternoon."

In contrast, Stoke manager Tony Pulis admitted his side were completely outclassed as they slumped to their third successive league defeat.

"We were second best from the first whistle to the last," he said.

"Swansea were better and deserved to win. I've got no excuses.

"You have good and bad days in football and this was a bad day for us. We looked a yard short all over the pitch. We looked sluggish and sloppy.

"Whether it's the fact we played (Crystal) Palace in extra-time (in their FA Cup third-round replay in midweek) and had to travel down early and had not been able to do anything for two days because of the snow, I don't know, but it wasn't us today."