Bohemians on the back foot after difficult night in Ljubljana

Olimpija Ljubljana 2 Bohemians 0

Dare Vrsic scored a penalty and a stunning free-kick to leave Bohemians with a difficult night ahead of them in the second leg of this Europa League tie at Dalymount next week.

And while there was some dispute about the award of the free-kick for the second goal, truth be told, but for the home side’s poor finishing that second leg would be a formality.

Roared on by their raucous support, it was one-way traffic from Olimpija as Bohemians were on the back foot from the off.

A couple of early scares that were off target were followed on nine minutes by right winger Matic Fink rattling Barry Murphy’s crossbar from 20 yards.

Another let-off for Bohs arrived on 26 minutes: Davor Skerjanc got to the end line to pull a perfect ball back across the face of the goal, but Anej Lovrecic contrived to knee the ball over the bar from just yards out.

But just as Bohs looked to be holding out for the interval, it quickly went pear-shaped in first half stoppage time.

First skipper Owen Heary somehow cleared off the line from Skerjanc from Matic Fink’s ball.

Then seconds later Murphy clattered into the back of home skipper Dalibor Radujko as he came for Lovrecic’s dinked ball into the area. Portuguese referee Carlos Xistra didn’t hesitate in pointing to the spot.

And though Murphy dived correctly to his left, Slovenian international Dare Vrsic’s spot kick powered into the corner of the net.

Olimpija remained well on top and got their second, perhaps killer goal, on 76 minutes. Bohs felt that Fink tripped himself on the edge of the area. But despite their protests, Vrsic’s brilliant direct free went in off the underside of the bar.