Slovan Bratislava 1
UCD 0
UCD CAME WITHIN minutes of registering another famous result on their European adventure but Collie O’Neill’s side are still very much in the tie after an admirable performance in Slovakia.
Adam Zrel’ak’s late, deflected goal has given Slovan Bratislava the advantage heading into the second leg of this second qualifying round tie but the Students will fancy their chances of overturning the deficit next week.
The League of Ireland side have won hearts and minds over the course of their Europa League campaign and they once again produced a display which defied their inexperience at this level.
They’ll look back on a handful of openings and rue those missed opportunities because they could have easily left for home with their noses ahead.
Not least because they were given a helping hand shortly before the interval.
Nicolas Gorosito saw red on the half hour mark after a horrendous tackle on Robbie Benson but UCD were unable to exploit their numerical advantage to register an invaluable away goal on the scoreboard.
As it was, Zrel’ak popped up in the 83rd minute to break the deadlock, albeit with the aid of a deflection off Mick Leahy’s arm, and give 10-man Bratislava the narrowest of leads.
If anything though, UCD have nothing to fear in the return leg in Belfield next week.
Slovan Bratislava: Jan Mucha, Boris Sekulic, Kornel Salata, Jakub Podany. Nicolas Gorosito; Samuel Stefanik, Slobodan Simovik, Marko Milinkovic, Robert Vittek; Tamas Priskin, Adam Zrel’ak.
UCD: Niall Corbet; Mick Leahy, Mark Langtry, Maxim Kouogun, Tomas Boyle; Jamie Doyle, Robbie Benson, Chris Mulhall, Gary O’Neill, Dylan Watts; Ryan Swan.
