Saints come from behind to beat Inter

Cape Town - Southampton kept their hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages of the Europa League alive after claiming a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Inter Milan at St Mary's on Thursday.

In a match devoid of consistent enterprising play, Claude Puel's side had the first real chance on goal in the 10th minute through Jay Rodriguez, who narrowly put James Ward-Prowse's accurate cross over the bar.

In the 33rd minute, though, the visitors were in front when Icardi was first to react to a rebounded loose ball and the Argentine forward bundled the ball in into to the back of the net.

Shortly before the interval, the Saints had a chance to draw level when Ivan Perisic was adjudged to have purposefully touched the ball with his hand. Tadic then stepped up to take the spot-kick, but failed to convert after Samir Handanovic produced a fine save.

In the 64th minute, the south-coast club nearly levelled when Romeu's rasping shot cannoned from the crossbar.

The St Mary's faithful didn't have to wait long for their goal, though. Moments after Romeu's shot, Virgil van Dijk was at hand to steer the ball home after it rebounded kindly for the Dutchman.

Six minutes later, the reversal was complete when Nagatomo was unlucky to bundle the ball into his own net after attempting to intercept a cross.