Southampton v Hapoel Be'er Sheva: Expect class to out at St Mary's

A busy Chris Graham (@chrisgraham79) looks ahead to Thursday’s Southampton-Hapoel Beer Sheva clash.

Both teams locked together on seven points and in second place.
A Southampton win or 0-0 draw would see Saints go through while a Hapoel victory or a score draw would see the Israeli’s go into the Last 32.
Claude Puel’s side have won both their home Europa League matches in this group. Group winners Sparta Prague were smashed 3-0 while Inter were beaten 2-1 in November.
Be’er Sheva have had a terrific adventure with home and away wins over Inter Milan and a home draw against Saints on Matchday 2.
The Israeli side arrive in great form having won their last seven domestic matches. They sit 10 points clear at the top of their league.
The picture is more gloomy for Southampton with just one win in their last six Premier League matches and Saints now lie in the bottom half of the table.
Worryingly for the South Coast side they’ve fired blanks in three of their last five games and didn’t record a single shot on target against Liverpool last month. Within the same period though they’ve kept three clean sheets.
While Southampton are short at 10/21 I do feel they are a class up from their opponents and are unlikely to spurn this chance at home to reach the knockout stage. I’ll back them -1 on the Asian Handicap at a shade of odds on.