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Southampton edged closer to the Europa League knockout stages with an historic victory against Italian giants Inter Milan despite going behind and missing a penalty in the first half.
Mauro Icardi had put caretaker manager Stefano Vecchi’s side in front but the 805 away supporters who had made the 620 mile trip North from Lombardy went home disappointed after Claude Puel’s side deservedly reversed their fortunes with a goal from man of the match Virgil Van Dijk and an own goal from Yuto Nagatomo.
Before this game, James Ward-Prowse had said that this was an occasion the fans deserved after seeing their team drop to the third tier and enter administration seven years ago.
It is almost six years ago to the day that Dagenham and Redbridge were the visitors to St Mary’s for a League One fixture. Inter had won the Champions League six months earlier.
But whilst Southampton have been upwardly mobile, the Nerazzurri have lost some of their lustre and sacked Ronald de Boer at the beginning of the week after dropping to 12th in Serie A.
Just as they did in the San Siro early on, Southampton made the early running, once they had survived a third minute scare when Ever Banega tumbled under Maya Yoshida’s challenge. His fall failed to convince the Polish official.
Again Claude Puel rotated his squad and one of the six changes, Jay Rodriguez, came close as he curled just over the bar in the tenth minute. Soon afterwards, some slick interplay between Dusan Tadic and Nathan Redmond ended with the latter smashing narrowly wide from a tight angle.
Inter, unfamiliar in their lime green and blue shirts were happy to sit back and counter. That strategy brought the opening goal for the Italians against the run of play.
Breaking down the right flank, Danilo D’Ambrosio wriggled free of Virgil Van Dijk and found Ivan Perisic at the back post. His shot was blocked by Cuco Martina but Inter captain Icardi fired the rebound crisply past Fraser Forster in to the bottom corner.
Southampton were not cowed and should have been level as the half ended shrouded in controversy.
Firstly, Puel’s side were awarded a fortuitous penalty when the ball bounced up off Pierre Højbjerg and struck Perisic’s arm at point-blank range. Saints had to wait several minutes to take the spot-kick as Inter protested and Antonio Candreva appeared to elbow Sam McQueen.
The Italian international was only booked and then Tadic finally stepped up only to see his effort saved by the legs of Samir Handanovic before under-fire referee Pawel Gil blew for half-time. Handanovic has saved all three penalties he has faced in the competition for Inter but it was a tame effort from the Saints midfielder.
Fuelled by their perceived injustice, Southampton made a ferocious start to the second half with Ward-Prowse twice forcing saves from Handanovic with efforts from distance.
The pre-match fighting talk from Inter’s Andrea Ranocchia was that Southampton would “have to come away sweating blood” if they wanted to win this game.
Certainly there was no shortage of effort but just as in the corresponding fixture, Inter were dogged and resilient. Icardi, much maligned by the Inter ‘tifosi’ for comments made about them in his recent book, was alone in attack as the other nine outfield players defended their lead.
After the imperious Van Dijk had forced another outstanding save from Handanovic as he headed Tadic’s corner at goal, finally the breakthrough came.
As another Tadic corner was cleared, Oriol Romeu looped the ball against the crossbar before Van Dijk stabbed home the rebound and St Mary’s exploded.
“There’s only one Marcus Liebherr” rang out from around the ground in tribute to the club’s late owner. His daughter, Katharina, is rumoured to be in talks to sell the club to Chinese company Lander Sports Development Co. for £200m.
How the late Mr Liebherr would have loved to have been present when Southampton went in front.
This time, luck was on their side as Tadic’s low cross evaded everyone but struck the knee of the luckless Nagatomo at the back post and trickled into the net.
The Europa League trophy visited the South Coast city on Monday. Saints fans will be dreaming it makes a return visit next May.
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