Southampton could qualify for the knock-out stages of the Europa League this week.
Southampton midfielder Oriol Romeu has said the side do not want to put any limit on their Europa League ambitions this season, the Daily Echo reports.
The Saints are currently second in Group K having picked up seven points from their four games so far and face a trip to Sparta Prague on Thursday where they could progress to the knock-out stages if results go their way.
A win would mean they would leapfrog their opponents at the top of the group and if Hapoel Be’er Sheva fail to beat Inter Milan they would progress to the last-32 of the tournament.
But Romeu suggests they are targeting much more than just progress to the knock-out rounds, telling the Daily Echo: “We don’t take the Europa League as a small competition. We want to make it a long run.
“We want to make history in the club and hopefully we will achieve something huge.”
The first task, of course, is to ensure their passage to the knock-out stages where the dynamic of the competition changes in the two-legged ties all the way to the final, while the third-placed sides from the Champions League group stages also come into play.
Claude Puel is a shrewd manager and knows how to take his side to the business end of European competition, having reached the semi-finals of the Champions League with Lyon back in 2010. Also, the size of Southampton’s squad has shown itself capable of dealing with the demands of all the competitions so far, so resources should not be a problem.
The question is, what would be regarded as a major achievement in this competition for the Saints? If they managed a run to the quarter-finals or beyond, it would highlight the remarkable progress the club has made in recent years and show they can be very competitive on the European stage.
Although once you get to that stage of the competition, it is hard not to dream of winning it!
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