Rovers’ Greek tragedy as Euro dream ends

BLACKBURN ROVERS crashed out of the UEFA Cup in the first round after giving themselves too much to do at Ewood Park.

Trailing 2-0 to Larissa after the first leg in Greece, a well-taken strike from Silva Cleyton after 17 minutes left Rovers needing four to progress.

Matt Derbyshire scored a retaken penalty in first-half injury-time after David Dunn was felled and Stephen Warnock fired a fine second on the volley from David Bentley’s cross six minutes after the break — but it was too little, much too late.

An uphill task became a mountainous challenge after 17 minutes when the home defence failed to deal with a cross from the left which ricocheted off Marco Foerster into the path of Cleyton, who sidestepped the defender to finish coolly from 10 yards.

The towering Chris Samba almost got the score Rovers so desperately needed, but he headed Bentley’s free-kick just over from six yards.

Dunn teed up Bentley from a free kick on the half-hour but he screwed his effort wide from a good position in the left channel.

The livewire Dunn then won a penalty when he was tripped by Kotsolis. Derbyshire scored at the second attempt after the keeper saved, but he was asked to retake and duly dispatched it in the left-hand corner to give Rovers a glimmer of hope in first-half injury-time.

Rovers hopes were raised further six minutes into the second half when Bentley jinked down the right and delivered a perfect cross for Warnock to volley home crisply at the far post.

Bentley almost created a third with another cross moments later but Derbyshire could only put his shot over the bar from close range.

Larissa brought on defender Ilias Kotsios for Alexandrou in a bid to stem the tide, while Hughes threw on Pedersen for Aaron Mokoena to try to force an unlikely comeback.

Blackburn were increasingly frustrated as the match reached its conclusion and Samba was booked for berating the assistant referee before heading a yard over moments later.

And Larissa were fairly comfortable in the closing minutes as they held on for a famous win.

BLACKBURN: Friedel, Emerton, Samba, Ooijer, Warnock, Mokoena (Morten Pedersen 63), Kerimoglu, Derbyshire (McCarthy 69), Bentley, Dunn (Savage 78), Santa Cruz.

LARISSA: Kotsolis, Galitsios, Dabizas, Foerster, Katsiaros, Kiriakidis, Alexandrou (Kotsias 56), Fotakis, Sarmiento, Bakayoko (Gikas 90), Cleyton (Kalantzis).

Referee: Claudio Circhetta (Switzerland).