The
winning goal was ugly as it came but the result was a thing of beauty
as Southampton pulled off one of the greatest victories in their
history by defeating Inter Milan.
Southampton
had not even played Italian opposition until they met Inter in the
pair's first Europa League tie a few weeks ago, not least ones who won
the Champions League only six years ago.
Inter,
without a manager after sacking Frank De Boer, are a side in turmoil
but they still had the finances to spend more than £100million in the
transfer market during the summer, so take nothing away from
Southampton's result.
The St
Mary's supporters were treated to a proper European night; opposition
with a glittering reputation, referee controversy going for and against
them, a mass confrontation inside Inter's penalty box as tempers sparked
into the crisp air, a missed penalty and finally a victory that will go
down in their history books.
After
dominating against these opponents over in Milan and coming away with
nothing, it looked like they would endure another frustrating night when
Mauro Icardi put Inter ahead in the first half.
But Virgil van Dijk equalised after the break and an own goal in the 69th minute eventually sealed it.
Dusan
Tadic crossed from the left, Danilo D'Ambrosio toed the ball on, it
missed everyone apart from Yuto Nagatomo who was rooted to the spot as,
under no pressure, the ball hit his left knee and bounced in.
Not that anyone on this pleasant stretch of the south coast will care one jot how the match-clinching goal came.
In
Southampton's correlating fixture back in 2010 — six months after Inter
lifted the Champions League trophy and won the treble under Jose
Mourinho — they were seeing off Dagenham and Redbridge in League One.
A
teenage Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored twice for them on the way to
earning a move to Arsenal. Jose Fonte also scored that evening and he is
still here, although he had to watch on as his team-mates came from
behind to send Southampton on the way toward reaching the Europa League
knockout stage.
Inter
sprung a surprise at the San Siro, scoring with their only shot on
target of the match, and it was with their first shot on target that
they took the lead again on 33 minutes.
Antonio
Candreva got to the byline on the right of Southampton's goal, clipped
the ball across with the outside of his right boot and Ivan Perisic
mis-kicked at the back post. Cuco Martina failed to clear and Perisic
squeezed the ball back for Icardi to finish finely on the turn.
It
felt harsh on Southampton, as did the result in Milan, but they were
paying the price for Claude Puel persisting with his strict rotation
policy.
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