Away goal gives Dundalk hope despite Champions League loss

A priceless away goal means Dundalk have every chance of advancing to the third qualifying round.

Wed, 15 Jul, 2015 - 22:16

By James Rogers

BATE Borisov 2 Dundalk 1

A priceless away goal means Dundalk have every chance of advancing to the third qualifying round of the Champions League despite going down 2-1 to BATE Borisov in the Borisov Arena this evening.

While Stephen Kenny's side will still go into next Wednesday's second leg as underdogs, David McMillan's strike either side of first half goals from Aleksandr Karnitski and Evgeni Yabionski means the Louth men need just a 1-0 win at Oriel Park to claim the scalp of a side who have been in the group stages in five of the last seven seasons.

While that remains a tall ask for the SSE Airtricity League leaders, they can take confidence from assured display in Belarus with only a couple of fantastic saves from Sergei Chernik denying them further goals.

The Lilywhites had actually started quite positively before being rocked in the 11th minute when BATE scored with their first attack.

After a momentary lapse of concentration in midfield, Vitali Rodionov was afforded too much room to run at the Dundalk defence and after slipping the ball through the legs of Andy Boyle, the alert Karnitski was on hand to send a fierce right footed effort past Gary Rogers.

The visitors responded well to that setback and should have been level just seven minutes later when Richie Towell's deep cross from the right picked out McMillan. The striker's initial header was wonderfully kept out by Chernik but he will have nightmares about his follow up as he blazed over from just six yards out with the goal at his mercy.

Dundalk went close again on 20 minutes when Chernik turned a Dane Massey header around the post with the home side having to wait a further eight minutes for only their second shot of the game.

Alyaksandr Yermackovich's side were actually growing into the game when their opponents levelled matters on 32 minutes with a stroke of fortune. Yabionski's attempted clearance came off Daryl Horgan to inadvertently release McMillan in on goal and he made no mistake with a cool finish under the advancing Chernik.

If Dundalk had a stroke of luck with their equaliser, then they had absolutely none six minutes later. Igor Stasevich's ball in from the left picked out Yabionski at the edge of the area with his shot looking bread and butter stuff for Rogers before it took a wicked deflection off Chris Shields to wrong-foot the keeper and creep into the bottom left-hand corner.

To add insult to injury, the Serbian match officials failed to spot a clear head butt on Massey in the aftermath of the goal that would definitely have warranted a red card.

Again, Dundalk didn't let the deficit faze them and right on the stroke of half-time Brian Gartland was unlucky to head over from a Daryl Horgan corner.

Towell then went close for the visitors at the start of the second half after meeting a Massey cross but the second half was largely about soaking up pressure.

Rogers was forced to make a fine save to keep out Nemanja Milunovic's header from a Stasevich corner on 58 minutes while a superb challenge from Stephen O'Donnell was needed to deny Mikhail Gordeichuk four minutes later.

Yet, by and large that's as good as it got for the Belarusians as Dundalk headed for home with a result that gives them every chance of emulating Shamrock Rovers' feat of 2011 and advancing to the third qualifying stage.