This Europa League qualification play-off promises to be quite the clash of styles. In the red-and-white corner, Southampton, who on their day play some of the prettiest and most expansive football in the Premier League. In the grey corner, Midtjylland, the Danish champions who scored nearly half of their goals last season from set pieces, and whose main attacking threat is a defender with a long throw.  Stoke City used to get pelters for this sort of carry-on back in the day. See also, to varying degrees of abuse through the years: Charles Reep, Wimbledon, Watford, Gary Neville. But this is happening in the Danish Superligaen, and the backroom staff keep banging on about parsing data and identifying transfer-market inefficiencies, so it’s all being presented as a vision of a bright and radical tomorrow. Perhaps it is. Though here’s another picture of the future: imagine an Excel spreadsheet scrolling in front of a hipster’s face - forever.  To be fair to Midtjylland, they’ve done what they’ve had to do to win their first-ever Danish title. They’ve already established a healthy lead in the early stages of their defence of it, too. And while much of their threat is analytics-driven - loading the box at corners, the Rory Delap-isms of Kian Hansen - they’ve also been occasionally caught playing some slick and skilful one-touch football. Not enough of it to stay in the Champions League - they were bundled out of that in the qualifiers by Apoel Nicosia - but enough to give Saints pause for thought this evening. Pione Sisto, the young Danish-Ugandan winger already on Arsenal, Juventus and Barcelona’s radar, certainly has what it takes to trouble the sort of defence capable of shipping three at home to Everton.  Not that Saints boss Ronald Koeman is overly impressed by it all. When pressed on Midtjylland’s tactical approach, his reply qualified as a haughty sniff. “It’s using the qualities. I don’t like to mention it as tactical. You use the qualities if you have tall people and tall players and you have somebody who throws in like the distance of a corner kick.” And as for their grand philosophy? “Midtjylland are working the model, but I don’t believe always in stats. I believe in my feeling, my eye on the pitch.” Did you expect a straight-talking Dutchman schooled in the ways of Ajax, Barcelona and the Oranje to say anything else?  Saints are strong favourites tonight, despite that awful capitulation against Everton last Saturday. They put five past Vitesse Arnhem in the third qualifying round, while Graziano Pelle, Shane Long, Dusan Tadic and Sadio Mane have all been in the early-season goals. But it’ll be interesting to studiously analyse sit back and enjoy Midtjylland at close quarters. Can they shock Saints and land another blow for Moneyball? Or will Koeman’s XI - expected to be strong, as he insists “I don’t pick the team with Sunday’s game in mind” - continue their excellent start to life in the Europa League? We’ll soon find out. It is, according to all the available data, on.  Kick off: 8pm on the docks of Southampton, 9pm back in Jutland.
Minute-by-minute report: The Danish champions scored a precious away goal as they earned a deserved draw at St Mary’s. Scott Murray was watching.