Southampton 3 Crystal Palace 1 – Ings’ double leaves Eagles to rue missed Milivojevic penalty kick

Che Adams and a double from Danny Ings cancelled out Christian Benteke’s opener, as Crystal Palace were left frustrated by a missed Luka Milivojevic penalty at St Mary’s on Tuesday evening.

The South Londoners opened the scoring after 66 seconds against Sheffield United last time out, and Roy Hodgson’s side started the game at St Mary’s in equally scintillating fashion.

A free-kick from Luka Milivojevic was met in the air by Scott Dann, who directed a header back into the box for Benteke. The Belgian forward juggled the ball around a sea of red shirts and emphatically fired past Fraser Forster to give the Eagles the lead after two minutes.

The switch to a fluid 4-5-1 formation has given Palace new life going forward, and Roy Hodgson’s side pushed forward with venom in the opening 15 minutes.

However, Southampton hit back when Nathan Redmond sent a low cross into the box to Danny Ings. Despite being swarmed by Dann and Cheikhou Kouyate, Ings found space to swivel and fire a shot past Vicente Guaita to score the 100th goal of his professional career.

After scoring the equaliser, Southampton grew in confidence. Guaita pulled off two excellent saves to keep the scoreline level – first denying Redmond from inside the area and then thwarting Che Adams in an identical scenario.

The game swung back into Palace’s favour when the Eagles were awarded a penalty in the 40th minute for a clumsy challenge from Nathan Redmond on Wilfried Zaha – but Luka Milivojevic saw his spot-kick saved by Forster down low to his left.

Southampton took the lead two minutes after half-time. James Ward-Prowse played a short corner to Stuart Armstrong on the edge of the area. The Scottish midfielder swept a shot back into the box, which was turned home by Adams at the back post to give Ralph Hasenhüttl’s side the lead.

Palace had a flurry of chances through Benteke, Zaha and Jeffrey Schlupp, but the Eagles cut frustrated figures in front of goal down by the South Coast.

As the visitors looked to get back into the game, Ings wrapped up all three points for the home side in the 74th minute. Adams picked up the ball in the middle of the pitch and threaded a pass through the Eagles defence for Ings, who squeezed past Dann and stabbed the ball beyond the helpless Guaita.