Irish clubs exit Europa League

by Setanta Staff , 04 August 2011

Sligo Rovers and St Patrick’s Athletic were both knocked out of the Europa League on Thursday after falling to home defeats to Ukrainian opposition.


Sligo secured a superb scoreless draw in Eastern Europe last week, but Vorskla Poltav scored twice inside a minute soon after the quarter-hour on Thursday evening to win the match and third qualifying round tie 2-0.

Serhiy Zakarlyuka struck first, scoring from a tight angle following a fine team move from the visitors, before Ivan Krivosheenko's low cross was diverted home by Pavel Rebenok.

Jason McGuinness headed straight at goalkeeper Serhiy Dolhanski as Sligo tried to get back into the tie in the second half.

However, the hosts were lucky not to leak further goals late on, with Vasylj Sachlo and Jovan Markoski both striking the Sligo crossbar.

Later in the evening, St Patrick's Athletic crashed to a 3-1 defeat against Karpaty Lviv at Tallaght Stadium, losing 5-1 on aggregate.

The visitors had too much for the Dubliners and opened the scoring on Thursday through Sergei Zenjov, who struck a fine shot beyond Gary Rogers.

Pat's rallied, however, and Evan McMillan's strike from close range just before the hour provided the home side with a glimmer of hope.

Karpaty, though, were not rattled and put the tie completely out of the Irish outfit's reach when Igor Khudobyak scored after 64 minutes, before Igor Oshchypko added to the Ukrainians’ tally late on.

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