James Ward-Prowse believes Southampton deserved to become EFL Cup champions on Sunday.

The Saints went down 3-2 to Manchester United at Wembley after fighting from two goals down to draw level at 2-2 early in the second half.

Manolo Gabbiadini's second goal got the south coast club back on equal terms but a late header from Zlatan Ibrahimovic denied them glory at the death.

"It's difficult to sum up," stated Ward-Prowse on southamptonfc.com.

"I think for people who watched the game and for us as players, it wasn't the result that the game deserved.

"I think we deserved to win. We outplayed them, our fans outsung them and we should have won the game.

"But we have to learn from this. This won't be the last time as a club that we are going to be here at Wembley - this has given us an incentive to get back."