Shamrock Rovers 0
Ferencváros 2
(Ferencváros win 6-0 on aggregate)
Paul Buttner reports from Tallaght Stadium
UNLIKE LAST YEAR, there was to be no morale boosting home win, following a 4-0 first leg defeat against the same opposition, as Shamrock Rovers duly bowed out of Europe.
A first-half goal from Kristoffer Zachariassen and another at the death from Samy Mmaee gave Ferencváros a deserved victory on the night before a somewhat muted crowd of 3,737 in Tallaght.
The Hungarian champions thus progress to meet Maltese side Hamrun Spartans in the third round after they prevailed over Georgians Dinamo Tbilisi.
Bowing out so early in Europe comes at a cost for Rovers. While they do bank €810,000 in UEFA prize money, it’s less than a quarter of what their run to the Conference League group stages brought in last season.
With five changes from last week’s rout in Budapest, giving European debuts to midfielders Kieran Cruise, 19, and Conan Noonan, 20, Rovers started positively, and were given a glorious chance inside two minutes.
Markus Poom’s diagonal found Sean Gannon on the right who availed of a slip by Cristian Ramirez to get a run on goal. The angle was tight, and Gannon pulled the ball back for Johnny Kenny who just couldn’t get any venom in the shot which was blocked by Mmaee.
Starting eight full internationals from six different countries, Ferencváros were quickly in on goal at the other end, but Mali winger Adama Traore was flagged offside before bringing a good save with his feet from Leon Pohls.
Pohls was there again on nine minutes to parry away an angled effort from Traore.
But Rovers were working Denes Dibusz just as hard at the opposite end.
The Ferencváros keeper first parried away a snapshot from Kenny with Gannon blasting the rebound off the crossbar as the visitors’ goal somehow survived.
Dibusz then showed his agility with a terrific tip over save from a Kenny header from Graham Burke’s precise delivery.
Rovers’ positive start counted for nothing, though, as they conceded a poor goal on the half hour.
Collecting a loose pass, Traore broke on the right to thread the ball through for Barnabas Varga.
There was no flag as Rovers appealed for an offside. Varga’s delicate touch found Norwegian Zachariassen whose shot took a nick off Hoops’ skipper Roberto Lopes to deflect past Pohls.
Save for Kenny having a shot deflected out for a corner early on, the second half didn’t catch fire until late on.
Rovers brought on Dylan Watts for the start of the second half while Aaron Greene, Liam Burt and 16-year-old Naj Razi were introduced on the hour in an attempt to liven up Hoops’ attack.
But it was Ferencváros’ Ghanaian sub Kwabwena Owusu who came close to doubling his side’s lead.
Set up by Brazilian Marquinhos, Owusu’s powerful drive took a slight deflection to rattle the crossbar on its way out for a corner.
Ferencváros did add a second goal right on 90 minutes. Rovers failed to clear a corner leaving Mmaee to calmly side-foot to the net from the edge of the area
SHAMROCK ROVERS: Pohls; Cleary, Lopes, Hoare (Finn, 71); Gannon, Noonan (Burt, 62), Poom, O’Neill (Watts, HT), Cruise; Kenny (Greene, 62), Burke (Razi, 62).
FERENCVÁROS: Dibusz; Makreckis, Cisse (Knoester, 66), Mmaee, Ramirez (Paszka, h-t); Siger (Esiti, h-t), Ben Romdhane; Traore (Owusu, h-t), Zachariassen, Marquinhos; Varga (Lisztes, 66).
Referee: Tomasz Musiał (Poland)
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