Thursday 20 August 2015 23:36, UK
Ronald Koeman remains optimistic ahead of next week's Europa League play-off with FC Midtjylland, despite being frustrated by the Danish champions at St Mary's.
Southampton travel to Scandinavia with their tie delicately poised after Jay Rodriguez's second-half penalty salvaged a 1-1 draw following Tim Sparv's opener for Midtjylland on the stroke of half-time.
And Koeman admitted he felt his side could have won the game, taking into account they chances they created and Steven Caulker's disallowed goal.
"We know it's not the best result that we expect, but we still have one game to play and we will go for it, that's for sure," he told the club's official website.
"I'm not happy about the final result. I'm happier about the second half. We played more direct, more aggressive and finally we had five or six very good chances to score.
"We scored a penalty and we made a good goal from Caulker on the corner kick of (James) Ward-Prowse.
"The whistle from the referee was unlucky. I didn't see a foul at the moment and even not after watching the clip. It isn't a good result because they scored an away goal – and it is an important one.
"We know we can score and we will create chances and we will get chances next week. We have to learn about today and how they play. Sometimes it is difficult but I hope that we get a referee who will do something about wasting time from minute one in the game."
Despite being disappointed with the result, Koeman was adamant his side are capable of overcoming Midtjylland in the second leg to progress into the Europa League proper.
"It was much better second half. We scored the goal of Caulker and we had some good chances," he added.
"We had some good pressing and we had domination totally in the game. I was happy about the second half.
"We saw that we are the better team and we had the better chances, but we have to be more clinical."
