Penalty shootout brings Shamrock Rovers' European odyssey to an end
HEARTBREAK: Shamrock Rovers lose out on penalties as Molde go through to the last 16. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
A European run that stretched across 16 games, seven months and three competitions – Champions, Europa and Conference leagues - is finally over for Shamrock Rovers after a cruel penalty shootout exit that will leave them stewing over plenty of regrets.
Nine of the penalty kicks were sublime. Only Aaron Greene’s failed to cut the mustard and that proved the difference between earning and losing the right to play a Conference round of 16 tie against either Cercle Brugge or Legia Warsaw next month.
But Greene’s miss wasn’t the only one that got away.
Leading 1-0 from the first leg in Norway, they lost the advantage to a sloppy goal just ten minutes in and, while the sides were equal enough in terms of shots and saves made, the hosts had twice the number of attacks and nine corners to one.
The Irish side also had two penalty shouts waved away, both of them correctly, and they couldn’t make their numerical advantage count when Molde, as they had last Thursday, lost a man to a red card, this one after 90 minutes.
It’s a rotten way for such a wonderful journey to end.
Rovers were aiming to be the first League of Ireland club since 1980 to make it to the last 16 of a continental club competition. Dundalk only had to see off Hibernians of Malta to do that. This story started in early July of last year in Reykjavik.
They had played everywhere from Iceland to Greece, Vienna to Belfast. And Tallaght, of course, where 9,533 people squeezed in on a cold and windy February night in the hope that something magical would take place.
So much had happened since Michael Noonan gave Rovers that 1-0 first-leg lead in Norway the Thursday before, not least the Hoops’ part in an historic League of Ireland tie at the Aviva Stadium when over 33,000 people had watched them lose to Bohemians.
If that had taken some of the wind from their sails then the mounting absentee list that presented itself before this latest European appointment had the potential to destabilise their bid to progress that bit more.
Suspensions, registrations and injuries all served top deprive them of eight players.
The one shaft of light was Gary O’Neill’s recovery from a knock picked up in Ballsbridge at the weekend. That allowed him take his place in the Rovers midfield. Still, there was no getting around the fact that this was a third ‘big’ game inside eight days.
Two teenagers, Noonan and Corey O’Sullivan, were named in the starting side. Another seven sat on the bench. Only six of the subs were outfield players and four teens were on the field for that end game.
It was a big ask but Bradley had promised they would take the game to Molde, that his wasn’t a side to sit back, and he was as good as his word as Rovers dominated the opening exchanges without ever looking dangerous.
The only goal appeared from the blue, Halldor Stenevik punting a diagonal ball over the top and Magnus Wolff Eikrim sliding it home to an empty net after Lee Grace and goalkeeper Ed McGinty made a hash of the bouncing ball.
Molde manager Per-Mathias Hogmo had expressed the hope after the first game that Rovers would push up more and leave chances for the counter. That’s exactly how it worked out with balls around and over the the home defence causing repeated problems.
The 20 minutes after that goal was harum scarum, end-to-end and absolutely brilliant.
Noonan had two chances in that spell. So had Aaron McEneff who saw one cleared off the line and a penalty check dismissed, rightly, but the Norwegians had their own say with Fredrik Gulbrandsen having two decent efforts of his own.
The last 15 minutes of the half were scrappier, cagier, and while Rovers had a stiff wind behind them on the restart it was Molde controlling the ball and threatening McGinty’s goal with a couple of half-chances.
Rovers needed a spark. They got it when McEneff found Graham Burke unmarked at the back post only for the ball to sit up. That was enough for a defender to recover and make the block but the hosts now had their ‘in’ and they kept pressing.
Another penalty shout, this one for a challenge by Isak Amundsen on Noonan, went unrewarded, Burke had another shot parried away, and Josh Honohan just couldn’t get his head to a Matt Healy free at the far post.
Molde were offering little to nothing going forward by now. This felt like Rovers’ chance and the fact that they didn’t look to their bench until Aaron Greene’s 89th-minute introduction only highlighted how there was no real Plan B.
The visitors, still two weeks out from the start of their domestic campaign, were hardly any better prepped for another 30 minutes, all the more so when Amundsen earned a second yellow card for a stupid rugby tackle on McEneff on the stroke of full-time.
Bradley looked to press that advantage by unleashing his second 6-year old, Victor Ozhianvuna, onto the wing to stretch things and, while he caused problems, Rovers still couldn’t find the finishing touch to a string of moves.
And they ended up paying for it.
E McGinty, J Holohan, R Lopes, L Grace, D Grant, A McEneff, M Healy, G O’Neill, C O’Sullivan, G Burke, M Noonan.
A Greene for Burke (89); V Ozhianvuna for Honohan (104); J O’Reilly-O’Sullivan for O’Neill (116).
J Karlstorm, M Linnes, I Amundsen, E Haugan, H Stenevik, MM Daehli, E Breivik, K Eriksen, M Wolff Eikrem, M Kaasa, F Gulbrandsen.
: F Ihler for Gulbrandsen and M Enggard for Linnes (both 65);M Bjornbak for Daehli (82); E Hestad for Wolff Eikrem (90); DD Daga for Kaasa (96).
: T Sidiropolous (Greece).
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