Europa League Report: AEK Larnaca 4 - 0 Dundalk (AEK Larnaca win 4-0 on aggregate)

Niall Newbury reports from Larnaca

Dundalk’s odyssey in the Europa League came to a disappointing end on Thursday as they suffered a heavy 4-0 defeat at the hands of AEK Larnaca in the sweltering Cypriot heat at the AEK Arena.

A brace from man-of-the-match Ivan Trickovski along with goals from Tete – who was also outstanding – and substitute Joan Tomas inflicted Dundalk’s biggest defeat in Europe since 2010.

Two factors of Dundalk’s obvious exhaustion were the temperatures in addition to the fact that Stephen Kenny made no changes from his side’s league win over Bohemians just four days prior.

Larnaca made just one change from last week’s scoreless draw in Oriel Park and what a masterstroke it proved to be as Tete – who was the big difference on the night – replaced Joan Tomas in midfield.

The hosts came out of the blocks right away and almost took an early lead after Brian Gartland had stopped Apostolos Giannou in his tracks before Trickovski’s shot was deflected wide.

Larnaca were dominant throughout, looking a completely different side from the one that drew in Oriel Park last Thursday and the menacing Trickovski saw another effort deflected wide soon after.

The Macedonian international didn’t have to wait long to get himself on the scoresheet, and he fired home into the bottom right corner to give Larnaca a deserved lead on 13 minutes.

Trickovski was truly a man on fire amidst the Cypriot heat and he again tried his luck, this time with a volley that forced Dundalk goalkeeper Gary Rogers into a good save.

Dundalk knew that a goal at this point could still see them through, but the Cypriots knocked the stuffing out of the Lilywhites when they doubled their advantage with just 20 minutes on the clock.



Some uncharacteristically slack defending from Sean Hoare allowed Tete to find himself through on goal after a wonderful ball from Joan Truyols, and he dinked the ball over Rogers to make it two.

The visitors had what looked to be strong penalty appeals waved away by referee Fran Jovic after Jamie McGrath appeared to have been fouled by Greek international striker Apostolos Giannou.

It was a rare foray into the box by Dundalk and Larnaca inevitably made it three seven minutes before half time when Trickovski scored on the rebound after his initial header had been saved by Rogers.

Trickovski – who was now on a hat-trick – came agonisingly close to scoring again not long after the restart but his shot, rather fortuitously for Dundalk, crashed off the post with Rogers well beaten.

The introduction of Patrick McEleney at half-time seemed to spark a bit of life into Dundalk and he saw his free-kick pushed away by Tono Ramirez before Patrick Hoban headed wide from a Dean Jarvis cross.

Half-chances came and went for both Michael Duffy and Dane Massey before Benson and Hoban combined again and the League of Ireland’s top scorer was again foiled by the Larnaca keeper, who saved his headed effort.



At the other end, Rogers produced a world-class save to deny Trickovski his hat-trick after Igor Silva’s magnificent cross was met by the head of Dundalk’s tormentor on the night.

Larnaca did find a fourth, however, as Joan Tomas scored within seconds of coming on three minutes from time to set up a third qualifying round tie with Sturm Graz as Dundalk exited the competition.

AEK Larnaca: Tono Ramirez; Igor Silva, Joan Truyols, Mikel Gonzalez, Thomas Ioannou Acoran (Joan Tomas 87), Ivan Trickovski, Jorge Larena (Nacho Cases 71), Hector Hevel, Tete (Konstantinos Konstantinou 81); Apostolos Giannou.

Subs not used: Andreas Christodoulou, Rafael Anastasiou, Ioannis Panayides, Onisiforos Roushias.

Booked: Acoran (32), Tete (41), Hector Hevel (84).

Dundalk: Gary Rogers; Sean Hoare (Dane Massey 63), Brian Gartland, Daniel Cleary (Sean Gannon 46), Dean Jarvis; Chris Shields, Robbie Benson; Dylan Connolly (Patrick McEleney 46), Jamie McGrath, Michael Duffy; Patrick Hoban.

Subs not used: Gabriel Sava, John Mountney, Karolis Chvedukas, Ronan Murray.

Booked: Daniel Cleary (9), Chris Shields (60), Dean Jarvis (78).

Referee: Fran Jovic (Croatia)

Attendance: 4,000 (estimate)

Extratime.ie Player of the Match: Ivan Trickovski (AEK Larnaca)

 

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