Southampton manager Ronald Koeman was remaining positive despite his side drawing 1-1 in their Europa League qualifier.

The Saints were held at home by Danish club FC Midtjylland in the first leg of their play-off for the group stage proper but Koeman was maintaining a positive mindset ahead of the return bout in Denmark next week.

Jay Rodriguez converted a 56th-minute penalty to cancel out Tim Sparv's opener on the stroke of half-time but it could have been a different result if Steven Caulker had not been penalised for a foul when scoring from James Ward-Prowse's corner.

"We know it's not the best result that we expect, but we still have one game to play and we will go for it, that's for sure," the Dutch tactician told his club's official YouTube channel.

"I'm not happy about the final result. I'm more happy about the second half. We played more direct, more aggressive and finally we had five or six very good chances to score. We scored a penalty and we made a good goal from [Steven] Caulker on the corner kick of Prowsey.

"It was unlucky the whistle from the referee. I didn't see a foul at the moment and even not after watching the clip. It isn't a good result because they scored an away goal - and it is an important one.

"We know we can score and we will create chances and we will get chances next week. We have to learn about today and how they play. Sometimes it is difficult but I hope that we get a referee who will do something about wasting time from minute one in the game."