Shelbourne rue missed chances as Qarabag hit three in Champions League first-leg clash

Irish Independent

3 days ago

The Azerbaijani champions' European experience came to the fore as Shels struggled to live with their visitors for long spells of the first half, with an early Leandro Andrade strike putting Qarabag in the driving seat.
Joey O'Brien's side were much improved after the break, however, and twice went close to a leveller through Harry Wood and Paddy Barrett, but Shels were made to pay for those missed chances as late strikes from Olexiy Kashchuk and Nariman Akhundzade saw Shels fall to defeat in this first leg, as the club's 11-match home unbeaten run in Europe came to an end.
The Premier Division champions now face a steep task in next week's return leg, with Qarabag targeting a 12th successive group stage/league phase qualification, although the Reds still have cracks at the Europa and Conference League should Gurban Gurbanov's side finish this job in the Champions League second round next Wednesday.
In a breathless opening 15 minutes, a loose pass from Seán Gannon allowed Kady a sight of goal but the Brazilian's shot was poor and rolled wide.
But it was Shelbourne who were inches from taking a lead after just seven minutes. Ali Coote put an overhit cross from Harry Wood back into the danger zone as Tyreke Wilson saw a bullet header blocked. The ball dropped kindly to Gannon but the defender skewed his shot onto the post before Akhundzade cleared the ball off the line in the nick of time.
More warning signs came moments later when Akhundzade went close after Zoubir outpaced Paddy Barrett to set up the chance, but with their next attack, Qarabag made no mistake.
A well-worked move on the left flank saw Zoubir slot Tural Bayramov through on 13 minutes. The Azerbaijani international squared to Andrade who found the net to silence the sold-out home crowd.
After losing Tyreke Wilson to injury, Shels needed the crossbar to save them when Akhundzade went close just before the half-hour mark. But the hosts finished the half strongly, Mipo Odubeko almost capitalising on a moment of hesitation from Qarabag 'keeper Fabijan Buntic, before Harry Wood rolled his shot just wide from a good position.
Qarabag came flying out of the blocks on the restart as Lorcan Healy, starting his first European game, had to be at full stretch to claw Emmanuel Addai's header to safety, but then a re-energised Shels began to ask questions of their opponents' back line. A chance came their way on 54 minutes courtesy of a fabulous Kerr McInroy cross which put the ball on a plate for Wood, but the Leeds native got his shot all wrong, putting his head in his hands in disbelief that he didn't level the tie.
As Shels searched for the leveller, it was a centre-half who went closest as an attempted cross by Barrett smacked off the crossbar, but for all their good work, two goals in four minutes late on silenced Tolka. On 81 minutes, a simple through ball cut through the Reds' defence as Zoubir hit the post, only for the ball to fall kindly for Kashchuk to tap in. Things went from bad to worse moments later when Ledwidge's header back to Healy looped over the goalkeeper and allowed Akhundzade to strike into an empty net.
For the Reds, all roads lead to Baku for the second leg but they'll have regrets about this night and what could have been.
SHELBOURNE: Healy; Gannon (Coyle 46), Ledwidge, Barrett; Caffrey (O'Sullivan 66), McInroy, Lunney, Coote (Martin 66), Wilson (Norris 19); Wood; Odubeko (Boyd 77).
QARABAG: Buntic; Bolt (Huseynov 76), Mustafazade, Silva, Bayramov; Bichalho, Addai, Kady; Andrade (Kashchuk 77), Akhundzade (Gurbanli 87), Zoubir (Jafarguliyev 87)