Europa League Report: Dinamo Minsk 1-1 St Patrick's Athletic

St. Patrick’s Athletic secured a crucial away goal as they drew 1-1 with Dinamo Minsk in the first leg of their Europa League second round qualifying game on Thursday evening.

A stunning second half goal from Christy Fagan was enough to salvage a draw in Minsk after Vladamir Korytko had initially given the Belarusian side the lead in the first half.

St. Pat’s had beaten Luxembourg side Jeunnesse Esch in the first round and despite not being favourites this time around, it was the Dublin side who started the brighter with two early chances for Fagan and Billy Dennehy  both of which went close.

However, after 25 minutes, Korytko gave Dinamo the lead after he received the ball well before curling  a shot into the bottom corner after good work from Gleb Rassadkin and Yuri Ostroukh down the left flank.

It would have been easy for the Irish side to fall apart but Liam Buckley’s side showed great resilience going into the second half when they grabbed a vital equaliser after 54 minutes.

Ian Bermingham did brilliant to break down the left flank, before feeding Fagan just outside the box where he turned and fired a stunning shot into the top corner, leaving Ignatovich in the Dinamo goal with no chance.

Fagan was forced off with an injury as the second half went on but St. Pat’s restricted Minsk to shots from distance as they kept their shape and defended resolutely.

Clarke was largely untroubled and the game remains firmly in the balance ahead of the second leg in Inchicore next Thursday.

Dinamo Minsk: Sergei Ignatovich, Yuri Ostroukh, Oleksandr Noyok, Nikita Kaplenko, Yuri Habovda, Kirill Premundrov, Vladimir Korytko (Anton Shramchenko 79), Artem Bykov, Valeri Zhukovski (Luka Rotkovic 70), Vladimir Khvaschinski (Mohammed El Monir 57), Gleb Rassadkin.

Subs Not Used: Maksim Plotnikov, Maksim Shvetsov, Yegor Zubovich.

Yellow Cards: Vladimir Khvaschinski (43), Oleksandr Noyok (48).

St. Patrick’s Athletic: Brendan Clarke, Darren Dennehy, Ian Bermingham, Sean Hoare, Ger O’Brien, Billy Dennehy, Conan Byrne, Graham Kelly, Mark Timlin (Sam Verdon 79), Keith Treacy (David Cawley 72), Christy Fagan (Dinny Corcoran 78).

Subs Not Used: Rory Feely, Lee Desmond, Michael Barker, Pat Jennings.

Yellow Cards: Billy Dennehy (18), Ian Bermingham (87).

Referee: Igor Stojijkovic (Serbia).