Bravo and Nabizada fire Watford to opening day win over struggling Southampton
Watford made a triumphant return to the Championship stage under new manager Alessio Dionisi, holding off a spirited Southampton fightback to win 2-1 at Vicarage Road on the opening weekend of the season.
The Hornets were exceptional from the off, with Iker Bravo marking his league debut in style, capitalising on a wayward Southampton clearance to dance into the box and dispatch a clipped finish beyond Daniel Peretz, the ball taking a slight deflection on its way in. The breakthrough came inside the opening quarter of an hour, having survived an early scare when Hector Kyprianou was booked for a heavy challenge on Leo Scienza.
Watford doubled their advantage on the half-hour mark through academy graduate Amin Nabizada, who ran from his own half before finishing confidently to send the home crowd into raptures and put a difficult summer at the club firmly to the back of the mind, following the sale of winger Nestory Irankunda to Sporting Lisbon and unrest surrounding former captain Imran Louza.
Southampton, playing their first league match since being thrown out of the play-offs in May over the ‘Spygate’ affair, and currently sitting bottom of the table after a four-point deduction, improved after the break and were given a route back into the game when Cyle Larin pulled a goal back with well over half an hour still to play, finishing from a Cameron Bragg assist.
The visitors pushed hard for an equaliser, with Taylor Harwood-Bellis heading over from a good position and substitute Finn Azaz seeing a strike drive narrowly past the post, before Harwood-Bellis spurned a huge chance deep into stoppage time, scuffing wide from close range having taken a touch inside the box. Watford held firm to see out the win, with Mattie Pollock and Kevin Keben setting the defensive tone as Dionisi’s side threw themselves in front of everything.
The result gives Dionisi a winning start in English football, continuing Watford’s fine record on opening weekends at Vicarage Road, where they have won every first home game since the 2020-21 season. For Southampton, it’s a bruising beginning to life under Roy Hodgson’s successor Tonda Eckert, with question marks already forming over a campaign that starts with the club rooted to the foot of the table.
