With Manchester United falling to defeat over in Rotterdam, Southampton represented England’s only chance of Europa League success on Thursday night.
And things got off to a decent start against Sparta Prague.
With only five minutes played at St Mary’s, Costa Nhamoinesu’s attempts to tackle Charlie Austin in the box resulted in an extremely harsh hand ball decision being given against the Zimbabwean, presenting the Saints with an early chance to get their noses in front.
Austin grabbed the ball and put it on the spot, but not all those in red and white were entirely happy about this. As the video below shows, Dušan Tadić attempted to persuade Austin that penalty duties should fall at his feet.
After being shoved away by Austin, Virgil van Dijk manages to usher a protesting Tadić away.
https://twitter.com/GoldenBoot_TV/status/776498820091904000
With the penalty area cleared, Austin stepped up and scored. Obviously holding no grudge, Tadić joined in with the celebrations… although we’d love to have seen what would have happened if the penalty had been missed.
As well as Sparta Prague, Southampton have also been drawn with Inter Milan and Israeli club Hapoel Be’er Sheva, who they play in their next match on September 29.
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