Saints head to Denmark knowing that if they can get an early goal it will turn the tie on its head.

As the TV pundits are fond of telling us when European matches are shown live, at the moment its only half time.

FC Midtjylland will feel they have the advantage having secured a 1-1 draw at St Mary' s along with an away goal that could count double.

However if Saints an get an early goal as they did in Arnhem in the last round it will mean that FC Midtjylland's away goal is neutralised and should Saints get a second then they will be the ones chasing the tie.

Judging by the way the Danes played in the first leg last week they will be relishing the task of sitting back and holding on to a 0-0 draw which would take them through on away goals and this is where an early goal would truly benefit Saints as i don't think the Danes are good enough to keep us out and i don't think they can change their game if they have to come at us.

Saints should not be scared of FC Midtjylland, quite the opposite, they might be a force in Denmark, but they are not a force in Europe and neither is the Danish league at present, with all due respect I do not think FC Midtjylland as a team are much better than lower Championship standard, perhaps that won't please them to hear that, but their disgusting tactics last week which in the last 30 minutes seemed to be solely based on a player staying down feigning injury when they lost the ball in the final third meant that we saw little of any real quality, just a team performing to a set plan based on spoiling tactics.

So the big question is whether FC Midtjylland can play football when they have to or whether their plan A is all they have.

Saints need to find that out by scoring a goal of course we have to score to go through whatever the result, but once we have that goal then the tie is swinging in our favour rather than the home sides.

Photo: Action Images

bstokesaint added 12:56 - Aug 24 I just hope Mane is fit. It shouldn't be the case that one individual is so influential, but he really is. We need someone that'll pull their defence all over the place. Mane's touch in the home leg was actually pretty poor, but he was still quick enough to get the next touch because of his pace. If we don't score in the first half I can see this one ending up with a 0-0 or worse when they try and hit us on the counter. This is such a pivotal game because a win will give us a huge confidence boost, which you can tell the lads (and fans) need right now.

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BUCK added 13:00 - Aug 24 Saints are odds on still to beat them on Thursday. I don't think there's anything to worry about.
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A1079 added 13:12 - Aug 24 I am not sure that calling the Danes tactics disgusting is entirely fair. Agree, it was not pretty and it was spoiling but we don't have a right to expect teams to give us space to play, especially if they believe, that by doing so, they could end up well beaten. It is no different to what some teams do when they face Chelsea, Man C, etc and it was no different to what West Brom did to us last year, home and away, and will probably do again on 12 Sept. It is up to us to find a way round it and take a higher percentage of the chances that we create which would then force the opposition on the backfoot. As much as we have had problems at the back this season, we continue to have a poor scoring record which puts pressure on your team, a factor that was apparent at times last season. As much as we miss Schneiderlin we also miss a striker who has that natural eye for goal.

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IanRC added 15:30 - Aug 24 I think the critical thing is that we must score first.
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HungrySaint added 16:00 - Aug 24 If we attack as we did in the second half last week we should be ok. Agree we are missing Schneiderlin as we seemed to be short of ideas when plan A wasn't working. Would like to see Juanmi get a start say ahead of JWP as he seems to be quite a handful.
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corkcitysaint added 20:00 - Aug 24 There's a lot riding on this match now with a sense of gloom hanging over us fans.. If we lose, it will feel like all we did last season was for nothing and we just threw it away. At least if we get to the group stage and play, it will feel like we accomplished something and have "played' in Europe. We need a bit of feel good factor at the moment.
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SaintBrock added 12:56 - Aug 25 At least we can see it live in HD on BT Sport and 'being there' makes all the difference.
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