Premiership

LARNE, REDS AND CRUES SEEKING EUROPEAN JOY

14 Jul 2022
football

A huge night of European football awaits this evening as Larne, Cliftonville and Crusaders all hope to progress in the UEFA Europa Conference League.

The Reds have perhaps the toughest task as they entertain Slovakian visitors DAC 1904 with a 2-1 deficit to overturn from last week's first leg in Dunajska Streda. (8pm).

Rego Szantho had given DAC the lead on 25 minutes but this was soon cancelled out by Ronan Hale when he connected with Jamie McDonagh's cross to knock the ball home at the back post.

DAC regained the advantage just after the hour mark through Nikola Krstovic, a Montenegrin full international, with a first time effort from Dominik Veselovsky's low cross.

Across north Belfast Crusaders will looking to avenge their defeat to Gibraltarian opponents Bruno Magpies (8pm). Also down 2-1 from the opening game, Stephen Baxter's side struggled with the heat seven days ago but will be hoping the cooler climes of Seaview will work to their advantage.

Magpies moved in front a minute from the break through defender Daniel Bent with a finish from the edge of the box. And they doubled their advantage three minutes into the second half courtesy of Argentinian born striker Pibe who calmly ran onto a defence splitting pass to beat Johnny Tuffey.

The Crues pulled a goal back just after the hour after Jordan Forsythe turned home Clarke's corner and whilst Paul Heatley twice came close to levelling but the visitors just couldn't find that elusive equaliser.

And Larne also welcome visitors from the Rock in the form of St. Joseph's.

Delicately poised after last week's scoreless first leg, Tiernan Lynch's side enjoyed the majority of openings in the first leg and will be striving for home advantage to tip the balance in their favour tonight. Kick-off at Inver Park is 7:45pm.

UEFA Europa Conference League (first qualifying round, second leg)
Cliftonville v. DAC 1904 (Slovakia) 8pm
Crusaders v. Bruno's Magpies (Gibraltar) 8pm
Larne v. St. Joseph's (Gibraltar) 7:45pm