Champions League: Sligo Rovers 0 - 1 Molde

Sligo Rovers will go into the 2nd leg of next week’s Champions League tie with Molde with the belief they can overturn a 1-0 deficit.

The Bit O’Red turned in a positive performance on Wednesday evening, but it was an individual mistake at the back that allowed Daniel Chima Chukwu to break the deadlock after 42 minutes.

Emmanuel Ekpo almost punished a poor pass back to Gary Rogers inside six minutes when he ran on to the ball and took it into the box, but the Rovers defence done just enough as he forced wide, preventing him from getting a shot away.

The Bit O’Red enjoyed an otherwise encouraging start to the game and they came close to opening the scoring after 24 minutes when a superb piece of counter-attacking football from Jeff Henderson released David McMillan down the right flank, before turning and shooting from the edge of the box with a curling shot that Ordan Nyland just about got his fingertips to it.

Alion Coly burst in to the box on the half hour mark and was forced to shoot from an angle with his shoot being well saved by Rogers, despite having Chukwu to square the ball to on front of an open goal.

Sligo delivered a couple of very threatening free-kicks in to the box in the first half, one of which was taken by Ross Gaynor as he picked out Evan McMillan, but was only just too high for the centre-back as failed to connect properly with the header.

Just moments later, Rogers was forced in to making a top class save when a corner found Chukwu whose venomous strike looked destined for goal, but the ‘keeper reacted quickly as he got down to deny the striker.

A defensive error from Evan McMillan allowed Chima to take control of the ball and pass to Jo Inge Berget who in acres of space decided to shoot from outside the edge of the box, and incredibly turned it past the wrong side of the post.

It proved to be a nightmare five minutes for McMillan as he failed to deal with a difficult ball under pressure from Chima who found himself in possession and curled a superb ball into the bottom right corner to send Molde in to the half-time break with a 1-0 lead.

The introduction of Kieran Djilali seemed to make a difference for Rovers once again, and this time his first involvement was in defence as he blocked a Joona Toivio effort off the line.

A Joseph Ndo shot that went narrowly wide of the post after 67 minutes seemed to really spark Sligo back in to life and leaving Molde looking a little rattled.

Djilali had a great chance to equalise with ten minutes to go as he latched on to a ball nodded down by Anthony Elding, but the winger was off balance as he lifted it well over the bar.

Three minutes later, an inviting cross from Liam Martin seemed to panic the Molde defence as they hesitated in clearing the danger, allowing Alan Keane to strike from distance, but his effort was blocked.

Sligo Rovers: Gary Rogers; Jeff Henderson (Alan Keane, 72), Gavin Peers, Evan McMillan, Iarfhlaith Davoren (Liam Martin, 78); David McMillan (Kieran Djilali, 59(, Joseph Ndo, Seamus Conneely, Lee Lynch, Ross Gaynor; Anthony Elding.

Subs not used: Ciaran Kelly, Jake Dykes, Ryan Connolly, David Cawley.

Molde:  Ordan Nyland; Martin Linnes, Joona Toivio , Vegard Forren, Magne Simonsen; Mattias Monstrom (Zlatko Tripik, 76), Emmanuel Ekpo, Daniel Berg Hestad, Jo Inge Berget (Even Hovland, 83), Alion Coly (Alnando Moraes Jr, 61); Daniel Chima Chukwu.

Subs not used: Ola Soderberg, Cristoffer Vatsaug, Elzaz Hussain, Magner Odegard.

Referee: Alexandre Boucaot (Belgium).

Attendance: 3,840.

Extratime.ie Man of the Match: Lee Lynch (Sligo Rovers).