Ćaleta-Car: Tough to take
Duje Ćaleta-Car reflected on a tough result to take at St Mary’s as Southampton fell to a 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa in the Premier League.
Saints had the ball in the back of the net twice before Villa took the lead with both Kyle Walker-Peters and James Ward-Prowse having a goal chalked off for offside and a foul respectively.
Despite positive signs from Saints, it was Villa that claimed victory on the south coast as Ollie Watkins's headed effort gave the visitors the advantage in the 77th minute.
“We’re disappointed, angry,” admitted the Croatian international. “I don’t know what the feelings are now going through the head. We expected more from the game and it was not our best performance today. I don’t know why but we need to do it better and we expected more just from this game.
“When you see our last games, we had looked confident. It’s a tough one to take but we need to now take a rest and be ready for Newcastle.”
The biggest turning point in the game came upon 62 minutes as captain James Ward-Prowse seemingly appeared to give Saints the advantage, before VAR overturned the goal in a controversial ruling.
“I think it was not a big enough foul to take the goal from us in the Premier League, so these fouls happen every action actually so it’s tough. But it’s his decision and we need to respect it.
“I think we deserved [a point]. The first half was not the best from us, the second half was better. The second half we didn’t create a lot of chances, but we also had some opportunities.
“We need to be more dangerous in the front and create more problems that we didn’t do today so try to play more and then just like that, Premier League you can take the points.
“It’s very tough to take and we just need to do it better. First, try to avoid the stupid fouls and then to avoid these goals.
The defeat comes ahead of a two week break in Premier League action, as Saints face a two-legged clash with Newcastle in the Carabao Cup as well as an FA Cup fourth round meeting with Blackpool.
“We are excited. We showed that we are playing good in tough games. Semi-final, tough opponent but I hope at home we will make a good result and with the good result we will go to their stadium and go to the final.”
