Carlos Corberan sends fighting West Brom message as crunch Southampton match looms | OneFootball

West Bromwich Albion manager Carlos Corberan has sent a strong message to Southampton, following their 0-0 draw with the Saints in their play-off semi-final first leg, at the Hawthorns.

There is certainly work to be done by the Baggies in the second leg, after they failed to fully take advantage of their leg at home.

Everything was more than likely going to come down to that second game of the tie, at St Mary's, but the draw in the midlands made the stakes even higher for both sides.

The play-offs provide a unique scenario in English domestic football. Very rarely will you ever play the same team twice in less than a week, outside of the post-season format.

This gives the coaches the best possible chance to prepare for their opponents, and Corberan is looking to take advantage of this.

Carlos Corberan's fighting message to Southampton

The Spanish boss has said that he is going to make full use of the break between two matches.

"Normally I have 15 minutes to prepare the second half, now I have four days," said Corberan via the Daily Echo. "Let's use them in the best way to prepare as best we can."

Huddersfield Town's ex-manager further reflected on his team's performance, and the atmosphere that was brought to the ground by the home fans on what was a scorching day at the Hawthorns.

He said: "It was a very equal, very balanced, very tough game as you can expect when you are fighting between four teams to reach the Premier League - the best league in the world.

"You have to expect tough and difficult challenges. The key is that you need to enjoy the difficulty of the challenge.

"In general both teams probably created similar types of chances. My feeling is that in the first 20 minutes, we were better than them.

"During the first 15-20 minutes of the second half, they were better than us. After that, both teams adapted better defensively and offensively to the teams.

"Any result that any of the teams achieved on Sunday would have had an impact on the second leg, but would not have been decisive for the next round.

"I like how the team competed. I was enjoying the atmosphere that our fans created. All these things together have helped to not lose the game."

Corberan continued: "This was the first time that we have not lost in 90 minutes against Southampton so we have taken a positive step.

"Set pieces are something we need to analyse and consider because we had a lot of opportunities that we could have done better from.

"Maybe the 0-0 scoreline doesn't reflect the game that we have played, probably 1-1 or 2-2 (would be better).

"The challenge that we are going to play on Friday is probably going to be the strongest one we have faced this season."

West Brom should take confidence from semi-final first leg

The two semi-finals on Sunday both ended without a goal being scored, which was the first time that this has happened since 2011, but the game between the Baggies and the Saints was a much more entertaining one, with chances for both teams.

Grady Diangana had good chances in both halves to put West Brom ahead, but his efforts were repelled by Alex McCarthy.

The stats from the game don't reflect badly on them either.

There are, of course, areas to be worked on ahead of the second leg, as Corberan alluded to. But, even though they will be the underdogs, West Brom showed that they have enough bite to cause a few scares for the Saints.