St Patrick's Athletic are through to the third qualifying round of the UEFA Conference League after a 2-2 draw secured them a 5-3 aggregate victory over FC Vaduz at the Rheinpark Stadion in Lichtenstein
Stephen Kenny and his players will now face Sabah FK from Azerbaijan over two legs, with a place in the play-off round on offer.
The Saints didn’t have it all their own way in Liechtenstein as they went 1-0 down in the 22nd minute through a Fabrizio Cavegn penalty after Lorik Emini was brought down inside the area by Axel Sjöberg.
After Zack Elbouzedi equalised by turning in a low pass from Jake Mulraney, a Cavegn shot deflected setting up a big finish that never materialised as Romal Palmer made it 2-2 in the 81st minute.
The penalty opened things up after a slow opening at the home of the Liechtenstein national team, with the only chance of note during that period coming from the boot of Mulraney and Leon Schaffran dealt with that.
After Cavegn pulled one back on aggregate for his side, an opportunity to equalise fell to the centre forward and Joseph Anang pulled off a routine save.
FC Vaduz were back facing a two goal mountain once Elbouzedi made it 1-1, and the best they could do in an attempt to get back in the tie was a burst of corners at the end of the first half.
The game restarted with chances for Danilo Del Toro and Mulraney, and neither was able to beat the goalkeeper.
FC Vaduz had the majority of possession during the second half, and St Pat's held firm, with Joe Redmond leading the cause by standing his ground and clearing almost everything that was sent into the area.
The St Pat's management team slowly rotated their team during that spell in a bid to keep fresh legs on the pitch in key positions.
The introduction of Kian Leavy and Al-Amin Kazeem in the 63rd minute was key to this as the substitutes were able to break with pace and keep the ball in the FC Vaduz half, which burned time off the clock.
Cavegn set up a chaotic finish when shot by the centre forward deflected and went beyond the reach of Anang.
Pat's never panicked. They kept their shape and made sure of the win with Palmer finding the back of the net with a cool finish.
FC Vaduz: Leon Schaffran; Mischa Beeli (Jenthe Mertens 72), Denis Simani, Liridon Berisha, Nicolas Hasler (Mats Hammerich 78), Danilo Del Toro, Sandro Wieser, Lorik Emini (Mischa Eberhard 78), Fabrizio Cavegn, Javier Navarro Rodriguez (Jonathan De Donno 67), Dominik Schwizer.
St Patrick’s Athletic: Joseph Anang; Anthony Breslin, Tim Grivosti, Joe Redmond, Axel Sjöberg, Chris Forrester (Aaron Bolger 50), Romal Palmer (Jason McClelland 85), Jamie Lennon, Jake Mulraney (Al-Amin Kazeem 63), Mason Melia (Cian Kavanagh 85), Zack Elbouzedi (Kian Leavy 63).
Referee: Ashot Ghaltakhchyan (Armenia)
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
