Sourced from Daily Mail article
Inter Milan 1-0 Southampton: Candreva fires Italian side to win
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Southampton’s sojourn to Inter Milan’s San Siro ended in defeat but the solitary goal came against the run of a match that provided a real indication of how far this small seaside club have come.
Antonio Candreva’s second-half strike was of the sort of quality that Inter have been accustomed to producing until their slow decline from 2010 treble winners under Jose Mourinho to Serie A strugglers now fighting it out with English football’s second tier in the Europa League.
Southampton came over in force, bringing close to 7,000 supporters from the south coast.
The Saints — many of whom visited Milan’s Duomo, the largest cathedral in Italy, earlier in the day — were continuing their intriguing football pilgrimage from down and almost out in League One six years ago to meeting these giants of European football.
The Saints are open about their Champions League ambitions and who knows where this journey will eventually take them.
They survived an early scare four minutes in when Cuco Martina misplaced a pass back to Fraser Forster allowing Mauro Icardi to intercept, but the striker was forced wide by Southampton’s goalkeeper who managed to block his attempted ball which would have set up a certain goal.
But they soon settled and twice within a minute almost scored. Jay Rodriguez, making only is second start of a season, set Sam McQueen away on the left and the 21-year-old, bursting with excitement at his first ever Southampton start, returned the favour, zinging in a low cross which Rodriguez reached.
The ball ricocheted between the striker and Samir Handanovic — Inter’s aptly named goalkeeper — and was rolling over the line until Yuto Nagatomo prevented a 28th-minute goal. From the resultant corner Martina passed into James Ward-Prowse on the edge of the box whose first-time shot singed the crossbar on its way over.
Rodriguez was in all the right places but his instinct was blunted by a lack of action in recent years. On eight minutes, he was through on goal after Miranda let a long ball over his head, but dallied and the defender tackled back.
He made the right run close to half-time when Shane Long flicked on a header, but he was inches away from connecting with the ball and converting.
The Italian’s were without new signings Gabigol, Joao Mario, Geoffrey Kondogbia and Stevan Jovetic due to UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules but had a strong side out. They had their moments, but their opening goal came after a deluge of Southampton possession.
On 67 minutes Davide Santon, the former Newcastle full-back, sprang down the left flank and pulled the ball back and Candreva met it first-time with his left foot, sending the ball cascading into the top left corner off the underside of the crossbar.
That was their only shot on target. ‘We were the only team that deserved to win and to concede a goal with their only chance is frustrating,’ Virgil Van Dijk said.
Marcelo Brozovic was sent off for a second yellow card and Southampton made the most of their advantageous final 10 minutes, but Handanovic made up for his side’s lesser number to deny them an equaliser.
Van Dijk was in behind Inter’s defence and found by Ward-Prowse’s devilish set piece delivery but his side-foot volley was straight at Inter’s keeper.
As Southampton poured forward the defender also had a header saved by Handanovic, who then flung himself at substitute Charlie Austin’s effort when the ball fell to him from the proceeding corner.
A narrow defeat, but it nonetheless felt like another step forward — rather than one back — along the road for Southampton.
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