Southampton miss out on Europa League groups after Midtjylland defeat
• FC Midtjylland 1-0 Southampton (agg 2-1)
• Rasmussen 28
Morten Rasmussen, right, celebrates after scoring for FC Midtjylland against Southampton on Thursday night in the Europa League play-off.
Southampton were knocked out of Europe courtesy of a strike from FC Midtjylland’s very own “Big Dunc”.
Morten Rasmussen was given the nickname Duncan during his early years with AGF Aarhus as he reminded a coach of the former Everton forward Duncan Ferguson, with the Denmark international even having the name on the back of his shirt.
And he provided the moment of inspiration to send the Danish champions into the Europa League group stages, with Ronald Koeman’s Southampton losing 1-0 on the night and 2-1 on aggregate.
Having made heavy weather of a first-leg draw at St Mary’s a week ago, Southampton were unable to score at the soaked MCH Arena in Herning and will now go back to focusing on the stuttering start they have made to their domestic campaign.
But Ronald Koeman felt the result did not reflect the two legs. The Southampton manager said: “[We were] unlucky. Because in both games we were the better team, who had the best and the most chances in both games. We scored a good goal at home [that was] disallowed by the referee.
“ Maybe it was the best performance until now from the team. We worked very hard. Sometimes you need good and right decisions and we didn’t have that.”
After Southampton passed up several chances to score a crucial away goal, Jay Rodriguez was guilty of a sloppy pass on the edge of his own penalty area that led to Rasmussen slotting home the night’s only goal.
Yet Southampton were nearly ahead inside four minutes as José Fonte threw himself at James Ward-Prowse’s corner only to see his goalbound header cleared off the line by Jakob Poulsen.
The visitors were in behind again moments later with Rodriguez opting to pass rather than shoot, leading to a Ward-Prowse effort cannoning off the covering defender.
With heavy rain setting in, Southampton should have been in front at the midway point of the first half as Steven Davis turned in the box before shooting low at the Midtjylland goalkeeper Johan Dahlin, who pushed the effort away.
Rasmussen then showed Saints how to finish, latching on to Kristian Bak’s pass after Rodriguez had gifted possession to the Midtjylland captain and tucking away his first chance of the night with aplomb. Pione Sisto could have made things worse for Southampton but he lacked the composure to beat Maarten Stekelenburg when inside the box.
Rodriguez, looking to atone for his error, rose well to meet Cuco Martina’s cross but his header was too close to Dahlin.After the break it was Rasmussen who was kicking himself as he could only head Jesper Lauridsen’s free-kick wide of Stekelenburg’s post despite poor marking by the Saints’ backline.
With Southampton pushing men forward in search of an equaliser, Midtjylland were starting to find more space on the counterattack and the referee Liran Liany had a big decision to make when Matt Targett brought down Rilwan Hassan – with a yellow card shown to the young full-back.
Daniel Royer should have sewn up the tie with 10 minutes remaining but his rising effort from the edge of the area flew inches over but it did not prove costly as a strong rearguard held off late Southampton pressure to end their brief European adventure.
Koeman said: “I think we started very well. We created some good chances in the first 15 minutes. OK, we did a mistake for 1-0 because it’s our ball possession, Jay lost the ball on a position on the pitch where he can’t lose the ball.
“ It was one chance and it was 1-0, very clinical, good for Midtjylland. But I think the final result is not the result what we saw on the pitch.”
Sadio Mané was an unused substitute for the Saints but Koeman said: “We knew Sadio wasn’t 100%. It will be a long season, I didn’t take that risk to put him in. We need Sadio for more games this season.”
Guardian
