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Europa League play-offs: Southampton crashes out of competition at Midtjylland

Matthew Childs / Reuters

Southampton's Europa League adventure is over after two fixtures.

In a match that boded well for the implementation of a sports philosophy seen in the film "Moneyball," Midtjylland, a club at the forefront of football's data revolution, defeated Southampton 1-0 at MCH Arena to book its place in the group stage of the competition.

The match's lone goal came courtesy of Morten Rasmussen, better known as "Big Dunc," and allowed the Danish club to advance 2-1 on aggregate - a result that wasn't an accurate representation of the game's shot count, but that further cemented Midtjylland's belief in statistics as being worthwhile.

It was also a result that assistant manager Erwin Koeman felt the need to apologise for after the final whistle.

Along with Borussia Dortmund and Ajax, who advanced from their respective play-offs against Odd and Jablonec, Midtjylland will be one of the 48 clubs involved in Friday's Europa League group stage draw, which will put the teams into 12 groups of four.

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