Rovers have no answer for Poltava

Sligo Rovers 0 Vorskla Poltava 2 (Vorskla Poltava win 2-0 on aggregate)

The eastern promise of their 0-0 draw in Ukraine was never realised by Sligo Rovers as they bowed out of the Europa League with a whimper to disappoint a capacity crowd at the Showgrounds.

Sligo had no answer to Vorskla’s passing and movement, and the Ukrainians blitzed Rovers to stun the big home crowd and lead 2-0 after 16 minutes.

The opener came on 15 minutes when Vasyl Sachko fed Serhiy Zakarlyuka on the edge of the area and the midfielder finished the flowing move with a simple tap-in from close range.

Conceding an away goal so early was a massive blow to Sligo’s hopes and it got far worse moments later.

Ivan Kryvosheyenko did well to cross for Rebenok to volley home past Brendan Clarke.

Vorskla remained much the better side in the second half and might have added to their winning margin on 68 minutes when a counterattack resulted in Sachko cracking a shot off Clarke’s crossbar.

Jovan Markosi should then also have scored nine minutes later but blazed over the top when one-on-one with the Sligo keeper.