St Pat's draw in Vaduz to set up Conference League third round clash
St Patrick’s Athletic’s Romal Palmer celebrates scoring their second goal
Struggling in the league and their FAI Cup defence ended prematurely, St Patrick’s Athletic engineered an upturn to set up a third-round tie against FC Sabah from Azerbaijan next Thursday.
A two-goal cushion accumulated by Stephen Kenny’s side from last week’s first leg was welcome, for FC Vaduz twice went ahead on their home patch of the Rheinpark Stadion in Liechtenstein through a pair of Fabrizio Cavegn goals, the first from a penalty.
On both occasions, the Irish team battled back to level on the night, initially through Zack Elbouzedi to leave it 1-1 at half-time before Romal Palmer cancelled out another strike from the hosts within six minutes.
Kenny started the same XI as the first leg and, although he lost Chris Forrester to injury just past the break, his replacement Aaron Bolger was an able deputy for the fierce midfield combat.
At one point during Thursday night, a logistical nightmare for the Irish authorities was possible next week when Israeli side Maccabi Haifa overturned a 3-0 first-leg deficit to finish 6-6 on aggregate against Sabah but the Azeris prevailed 3-2 on a penalty shootout.
Vaduz operate in the second tier of the Swiss league, due to their homeland having no professional league, and their progression to the group phase of the Conference League two years ago had them confident of replicating their run.
Deservedly, St Pat’s advance to the third round, soaring their minimum prize-money from the run to €900,000. They reached that stage two years ago under Tim Clancy, eventually losing CSKA Sofia 2-1 despite taking a first-leg lead home from Bulgaria.
“Vaduz were really gamey and aggressive in the match and had us under the cosh when they scored,” admitted Elbouzedi, who will come against his former AIK teammate Vincent Thill with Sabah.
“It’s no mean feat scoring two goals away in Europe but we know can play much better.
“We showed characteristics that we’ll need in the league, the type of resilience to get out of where are.
“Momentum is massive is football and this can reignite our season, get the boys believing. This is just the start.”
As Elbouzedi conceded, it was one-way traffic early on. Nicolas Hasler whistled a shot wide and when Axel Sjoberg clumsily fouled Lorik Emini in the box, goalkeeper Joseph Anang was unable to keep out the penalty from Cavegn.
Vaduz almost brought the tie to parity moments later when Sandro Wieser hitting the post but the game swung through Elbouzedi’s first goal for the club.
Mulraney made the running by cutting in from the left and squaring for Elbouzedi to lift his left-footer home.
Vaduz were back to square one and while Cavegn thought he’d set up a tense finale by finding the net with a deflected shot, Saints hit back again to kill the tie with 10 minutes left.
Substitute Kian Leavy was a livewire when coming; spotting Romal Palmer unmarked inside who applied the expert finish.
Ground regulations force the Saints to switch venue for the higher round but Kenny has good memories from his Dundalk side relocating during their 2016 odyssey to the Europa League group.
“Moving to Tallaght with Dundalk didn’t hinder us in the playoffs or group,” noted Kenny, highlighting the plans of club owner Garrett Kelleher for their home ground. “I’m not fazed but Richmond Park is the home of St Pat’s.
“I know Garrett has a vision to rebuild the stadium. He’s determined to have that and host nights like this regularly.” He added: “We had to dig and show guts in this second leg. There was motivation to get through because the third round is really exciting. Sabah will be a good team. Qarabag played in Ireland before and were pushed in the league last year by Sabah.
“We had a team member at their match against Maccabi and that was a crazy game. We’ve got a busy week ahead - Sligo Rovers in the league on Sunday, Tallaght and then away to Azerbaijan.”
L Schaffran; M Beeli, D Simani, L Berisha, N Hasler (M Hammerich 78); S Wieser, D del Toro, L Emini (M Eberhard 77); F Cavegn, J Navarro (J De Donno 66), D Schwizer.
: J Anang; A Sjoberg, J Redmond, T Grivosti, A Breslin; C Forrester (A Bolger HT), J Lennon; Z Elbouzedi (K Leavy 64), R Palmer, J Mulraney (A Al-Amin 64); M Melia (C Kavanagh 85).
A Ghaltakhchyan (Armenia).
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