Derry City 1
FC Tobol 0
FC Tobol win 6-5 on penalties
DERRY CITY’S EUROPEAN season is over, falling to a brutally sore shootout defeat to Tobol of Kazakhstan. Tonight’s prize was a play-off tie with Viktoria Plzen – one step away from the Conference League group phase – and it was within their grasp, but ultimately were left to regret missed chances and then the narrow and heartless margins of a penalty shootout.
Derry were the better side across 90 minutes and though they levelled the tie through Will Patching’s early penalty, they couldn’t win it, with Cian Kavanagh wasting a glorious chance to do so deep in stoppage time. Extra-time instead became an exercise in survival, with the flinty Mark Connolly leading the resistance. But in the end, Derry could not endure the shootout.
Derry showed enough in last week’s first-leg defeat to feel this tie was very much alive, and they started this game with a kind of controlled fury: Adam O’Reilly flew into challenges but (almost) always won the ball, as Jamie McGonigle nonchalantly bumped defenders out of his way.
Derry’s attacking play, meanwhile, was slick, evidently enjoying the return to a proper playing surface with last week’s tie played on the kind of overgrowth that frames golf course fairways. This game was played in Tallaght with the Brandywell deemed not up to scratch by Uefa, but Derry brought an impressive crowed of 3,128 nonetheless.
Much of that attacking play came down the left, with midfielder Will Patching drifting out to link delightfully with Michael Duffy. It was this combination that yielded Derry’s opening goal, with help from a generous referee. Patching sent a ball skidding inside the Tobol right-back for Duffy, who took the ball into the box and went to ground following a tangle with Ivan Rogac after he had pushed the ball over the endline. There was definite contact -whether you believed it was enough for a penalty depended on your allegiances.
Patching grabbed the opportunity, slamming the spot kick into the bottom corner, sending goalkeeper Konovalov the wrong way.
Derry maintained their fabulous intensity, with O’Reilly and Sadou Diallo diligently breaking up play and winning their scraps in midfield. Duffy, meanwhile, terrorised the Tobol defence. He was borderline unplayable, almost putting the stunning final touch on what would have been a glorious goal. Patching created space on the edge of his box with a pirouette away from a challenge, and then prodded the ball forward to O’Reilly, who flighted a delicious, arcing pass over the top of the Tobol defence for McGonigle. The striker took a touch, pulled the ball back for Duffy, who sent a vicious fade just the wrong side of the post.
McGonigle got reliable joy in behind the Tobol defence, but he couldn’t capitalise when he pounced on a through ball and weaved inside the penalty area. Tobol’s attacking threat in the first half was meagre, though Cameron McJannett was forced into one terrific clearance in his own six-yard box after right winger Igor Ivanovic skated by Ben Doherty.
FC Tobol struggled to deal with the occasion in the first half, and at half-time, their General Manager Andrei Kanchelskis summed it up by making a hames of the basic facts of it. Doing an interview with RTE, Kanchelskis paid warm tribute to the ‘British people’, given he was back again in ‘Britain’.
Derry remained the better side immediately after the break, with Duffy firing into the side netting and goalkeeper Konovalov atoning for his sloppiness on a corner by blocking McGonigle’s snapped follow up.
Patrick McEleney was introduced for his 50th European appearance just after the hour mark and he quickly crafted an opening for Paul McMullan: a neat chest control and pass allowing McMullan dash in off the wing to shoot, but his effort was blocked by a splayed Konovalov.
At the other end, Maher sharply blocked a goal-bound effort by Serge Deble after the striker wriggled his way around Doherty.
Derry were the better side across the 90 minutes but didn’t create the number of chances commensurate with their dominance. That said, they did create one to win it with the final kick of normal time, but saw it agonisingly squandered.
Its genesis was a Kavanagh one-two. Cian dropped off and played the ball back to Brandon, who slid a perfect pass in behind the Tobol defence for Cian. His first touch was perfect, and as he steadied himself to win the game…he sliced his shot miserably wide. It was the final act of six minutes of added time.
Tobol were at their most dangerous in extra time, with Derry’s fatigue manifesting in sloppy passing. Substitute Ramazan Orazov tested Maher with a snapshot in the penalty area, while Mark Connolly hacked the ball away in front of an empty goal after Deble’s heavy touch took a through ball beyond Maher but, crucially, himself.
Ben Doherty’s struggles at left-back continued, and when substitute winger Pavel Kireenko rinsed him and stood a cross to the back post, Ronan Boyce made an outstanding defensive header to deny the loitering Deble.
Derry repelled whatever Tobol threw at them in the endgame, led by the outstanding Mark Connolly, who dominated the skies. There was one moment of frantic panic, with Connolly left writhing on the ground with cramp: the referee waved play on and Tobol took their parole to attack through the centre of Derry’s defence, but McJannett and co threw themselves in front of a challenge and scrambled it clear.
Rather than lose the cramping Connolly entirely, Derry put him up front for the closing minutes. Cameron Dummigan stood tall in his defence absence, climbing into the skies to head clear a late cross.
It was decided on spot kicks. The first four penalties all went to the same corner and all were scored, McEleney and Brandon Kavanagh for Derry; Ramazan Orazov and Miljan Vukadinovic for Tobol. Paul Mullin then slammed his in top corner, with Yevhen Shakhov keeping his nerve in reply. Jordan McEneff converted too, as did Roman Asrankulov, the goalscorer in the first leg.
Then came the misses, Derry’s with a a bizarre prelude. Cian Kavanagh was halfway to goal to take his when he was called back, and Ben Doherty sent instead. That may have heaped more pressure on Doherty, who saw his tame kick saved by Konovalov. It fell to Jovan Illic to win it for Tolov, but the ringing sound of the struck crossbar was quickly swallowed by the screams of Derry’s reprieve. Next came Cian Kavanagh, who admirably scored. Tobol converted theirs, with Brian Maher stepping up next.
Maher had an age to wait, with Tobol’s keeper complaining about a Derry staff member standing behind the goal. Konovalov quickly won the more important argument, flinging himself to his right to palm away Maher’s spot kick. Kireenko was the next man to be given a chance to win the game for Tobol, but this time he made no mistake.
Derry City: Brian Maher; Ronan Boyce, Mark Connolly, Cameron McJannett, Ben Doherty; Adam O’Reilly (Cameron Dummigan, 75′), Sadou Diallo (Jordan McEneff, 87′), Will Patching (Patrick McEleney, 63′); Paul McMullan (Brandon Kavanagh, 87′), Jamie McGonigle (Cian Kavanagh, 63′), Michael Duffy (Danny Mullen, 111′)
FC Tobol: Ivan Konovalov; Bagdat Kairov (Albert Gabaraev, 90′), Ivan Rogac, Bojan Mladovic, Roman Askranulov; Jovan Ilic, Samat Zharynbetov (Yevhen Shakhov, 75′), Serikzhan Muzhikov (captain) (Pavel Kireenko, 84′); Igor Ivanovic (Ramazan Orazov, 75′), Serge Deble (Pavel Zabelin, 112′), Miljan Vukadinovic
Referee: Peter Kralovic (SVK)