St. Patrick's Athletic 1 - 2 Steaua Bucharest

In spite of an extremely gallant effort on the night, St. Patrick’s Athletic went crashing out of the Europa League on Thursday night following a 5-1 aggregate defeat against Steaua Bucharest at the RDS. It looked like they had a real chance of getting something out of the tie when Gareth O’Connor found the net after 49 minutes, but Steaua rode the inevitable storm after this goal and chipped in with two late goals of their own courtesy of substitutes Banel Nicolita and Razvan Oichirosii.

As was fully expected, Jeff Kenna opted for a change in formation, with the usual 4-5-1 European formation being ditched in favour of a more direct 4-4-2 style which, it was hoped, would produce the goals that they so badly craved. The former Galway United boss would have been looking for his players to express themselves from the first whistle and they certainly did have plenty of possession early on, with the likes of Enda Stevens and Gareth O’Connor quite prominent.
 

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O’Connor, in particular, delivered some nice crosses into the area but, more often than not, Robinson Zapata in the Steaua goal managed to catch the deliveries uncontested and this exemplified a lot of the early Pat’s play, as they struggled to create any clear opportunities in front of the Romanian side’s goal.

In turn, Steaua were playing a more defensive game, but were always threatening when they saw the chance to break and they very nearly went into the lead after nine minutes, but Bogdan Stancu’s close-range header went sailing over Gary Rogers’ crossbar. As the half progressed, both sides began to express themselves that bit more and both goalkeepers needed to be on their toes on a couple of occasions.

Declan ‘Fabio’ O’Brien had two efforts on target for Pat’s, which were handled expertly by Zapata, while Rogers was very alert to keep out a Janos Szekely effort on 27 minutes. In a game of this magnitude, Pat’s really needed to be taking any opening that came their way and they should have taken the lead after 37 minutes when Stevens was put clean through by Mark Quigley only to drag his left-footed shot past the right-hand post.

A goal here would have given The Saints great confidence going into the dressing room at half-time but it should also be noted that Szekely had another effort that went just over the bar with five first-half minutes remaining. Indeed, Bucharest were really beginning to press towards the end of the opening period and it could be argued that Pat’s would have been glad that they went in at half-time without conceding a goal.

Nonetheless, they really had to up the ante after the break and this is exactly what they did and when O’Brien broke free down the right flank with four minutes gone in the second half, he delivered an excellent cross for O’Connor who had the easiest of finishes into an empty net from just a few yards out.

By the looks of things, the Pat’s supporters were somewhat outnumbered by the away side, but they were certainly vocal after this goal as the nine-time League Champions looked to push on for more goals. Steaua looked rattled at this point and just four minutes later they gave away a free 25 yards out after a foul on Ryan Guy, which was in the right territory for Alan Cawley.

His effort could not have been hit any sweeter as it turned out, and he was desperately unlucky to see his shot hit the post and run right across the goal before being cleared to safety. This was a real let-off for Bucharest as a second goal at this point would have given us a tension-filled half an hour.

Sensing that Pat’s were really coming into the contest, Steaua manager Cristiano Bergodi opted to bring on highly-rated striker Nicolita to try and close out the game. The change certainly brought some freshness to their play as Steaua eventually managed to ride the storm set by Pat’s and managed to press the home side again.

However, they weren’t creating an awful lot, so the game was still there for Pat’s if they could create some openings. Unfortunately though, disaster struck for Pat’s when Ryan Guy under hit his back pass to Gary Rogers, only to see the ball fall to Nicolita who buried into the top corner to put the sides level on the night and put his team 4-1 ahead on aggregate.

This ended any chance that Pat’s had of getting something out of the game and, with both sides emptying their benches as the game entered its final few minutes, Pat’s were left extremely open at the back and Steaua caught them on the break once more with just a minute left when Romeo Surdu unselfishly squared the ball for Ochirosii who finished into an empty net to wrap up the victory for the Romanians.

So, St. Patrick’s Athletic’s European odyssey for 2009 is now over, but they can leave it with their heads held high after some terrific displays in the Europa League this season. They will now be looking to climb up the table in the League of Ireland Premier Division where they currently find themselves in 7th place with their next fixture coming this Sunday against Drogheda United in Richmond Park.

St. Patrick’s Athletic: Gary Rogers; Stuart Byrne (Gary Dempsey 78), Jamie Harris (Jason Gavin 85), Damian Lynch, David Patridge; Alan Cawley, Ryan Guy, Gareth O’Connor, Enda Stevens (Darragh Ryan 46); Declan O’Brien, Mark Quigley.
Subs not used: Brendan Clarke, Stephen Maher, Bobby Ryan, Glen Fitzpatrick.

Steaua Bucharest: Robinson Zapata; Pawel Golanski, Janos Szekely (Razvan Ochirosii 86), Rafal Grzelak (Banel Nicolita 57), Alexandru Tudose; Andrei Ionescu, Sorin Ghionea, Mihai Onicas, Bogdan Stancu (Romeo Sturdu 78); Emil Ninu, Kroum Bibishkov.
Subs not used: Ciprian Tatarusanu, Eugen Baciu, Miguel Tininho, Alexandru Iacob.

Referee: Jiri Jech (Czech Republic).

Attendance: unknown.

Extratime.ie man of the match: Gareth O’Connor (St. Patrick’s Athletic) – Was lively throughout and was in the right place to convert the chance which gave Pat’s so much hope at the start of the second half.