Southampton manager Ronald Koeman believes that his side were clearly better than Liverpool this afternoon at St. Mary's, but failed in the crucial part of scoring goals, after they lost 2-0.
The Saints had a penalty appeal turned down in the very first minute before Philippe Coutinho let rip a 25-yard shot into the back of the net to put Liverpool 1-0 up in the third minute. It was a curling strike, which touched the bar and went in, Southampton's goalkeeper having no chance of saving the effort.
A minute later Southampton had another strong penalty appeal turned down. The Saints enjoyed the lion's share of possession, finishing with 60 per cent of the ball, and dominated the match, though struggled to create clear cut goalscoring chances.
Liverpool killed the game in the 73rd minute, with Raheem Sterling taking advantage of poor defending and a slip from a Southampton defender to drill the ball into the back of the net – 2-0 Liverpool.
The Saints had no answer, but Koeman was not downbeat post-match and believes his side were clearly the better team throughout. He also bemoaned referee Kevin Friend failing to award his team a penalty.
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"We know in football, it's all about scoring goals. We played much better than Liverpool, we had more possession, more chances", the Dutchman told Sky Sports.
"I call it unlucky in the decisions of the referee. The second situation is a clear penalty to [Filip] Djuricic.
"2-0 behind, I'm very disappointed about the result, but not our performance. It was the same in the first game with Liverpool.
"We have more ball domination, but we create four or five good positions to score and referee didn't whistle for a clear penalty.
"Sometimes you need that luck on your side and in the last few games we don't have that", Koeman added.
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