European dream ends for Dundalk

Dundalk 0 BATE Borisov 0 (BATE Borisov win 2-1 on aggregate): Raging anticipation gave way to crushing anti-climax in Oriel Park last night as Dundalk failed to get the one goal required to keep them in the Champions League.

In truth, they can’t afford to complain too much. After impressing hugely in Belarus, they simply could not reproduce the same level of performance, let alone better, at home. And had BATE Borisov made more of a string of chances that came their way, especially in the first half, they would have had this game and the tie sown up well before the end.

“Overall they probably deserved to go through,” admitted Dundalk skipper Stephen O’Donnnell. “Hopefully we’ll go on and do ourselves justice in the league and be back next year.”