Oriol Romeu believes Saints will be close to reaching the Europa League knockout stages after just two matches if they can get a win in Israel tonight.

Saints opened up their Group K account with a home win over Sparta Prague, while this evening’s opponents Hapoel Be’er Sheva stunned Inter Milan with victory in the San Siro, writes ADAM LEITCH IN ISRAEL.

Now Claude Puel’s men take on Hapoel at the Turner Stadium knowing victory would set them up nicely ahead of a double header against Inter and leave them with one foot in the knockout stages.

Romeu said: “We will be closer. Not over yet, but we will be closer. In the beginning it's not going to be easy, but we're feeling good, we're coming in on a good run and I think we are able to do it.

“I think the first game was very important, and it's always good to start with a win, but I think now with six points it would be even better.

“It would give us more confidence to keep going and to get through the next stage and we hope we can do it.

“I think after winning those two games, we will feel much better, but it's all about the game.”

Romeu admits he didn’t know much about Hapoel previously but is now aware what to expect when the teams meet tonight.

“If someone hasn't watched them or you don’t know them well, you might think it will be easy, but it won’t be,” he insisted.

“They are a strong team, they have done pretty well the last months, the last year and I think it’s going to be hard.

“They defend quite well and we need to be ready, we need to be careful with the turnover of the balls and hopefully we can get our good strike going and keep ourselves in a good way.

“I just know that they are a strong team. It's not easy to go against Inter Milan and beat them at their great stadium.

“They are a good defensive team and we like to have the ball, we like to keep the ball, but we need to be ready for the counter attacks.

“In English football we are used to it, but they do these things very well and we will need to make sure the spaces behind our defence are well covered and when we lose the ball we are ready to get it back quick.”

Saints are in a fine run of form after four wins on the spin and confidence is high.

“We are feeling comfortable now, we are feeling much better,” admitted Romeu.

“The last results have been very good, not just results but also the way we played and did a lot of things. They were very positive and we have to keep doing the same.

“Obviously, one game or two games doesn't change anything, you have to keep doing it every game. That's football and that's what we have to do tonight.”