St. Patrick's Athletic 1 - 3 Karpaty Lviv

• Niall Farrell
• Thu, Aug 04 2011


St. Pats were completely outclassed by an outstanding Karpaty Lviv side in Tallaght tonight as their tumultuous European journey came to an end.

Sergei Zenjov gave Karpaty the lead on the half hour mark with a dipping long-range effort which eluded Pats keeper Gary Rogers. Evan McMillan pulled Pats back to level terms just after half-time but further Karpaty goals from Igor Khudobyak and Igor Oshchypko put paid to the Saints' chances.

Up to that point, the match had been a relatively even one, with Karpaty probably having the better chances. Lucas Perez Martinez stood out for the visitors, making angled runs from midfield and moving into attacking positions. He shot just wide on two minutes and forced a corner on 17 minutes with a stinging shot from the edge of the Pats box.

But Estonian midfielder Zenjov struck the ball beautifully 30 yards from goal on 22 minutes and the ball arched beyond the reach of Gary Rogers and into the bottom right corner of his goal.

After that Pats looked more threatening but Karpaty always looked the most likely to score again. Pats built the ball up well but were snuffed out continually by the Karpaty defenders.

Evan McMillan forced a superb save out of Andriy Tiumak after he turned on the ball on the edge of the box three minutes before the break but the whistle had been blown for a foul on a Lviv player.

In the early stages of the second half Gary Rogers had to slide in to save the ball at the feet of Zenjov after Martinez had played him through. Pats were the dominant side for a spell of around 15 minutes afterwards.

They made good on their dominance by equalising on 57 minutes. An Ian Daly corner- Pats' sixth of the match- was headed on by Brian Shortall and stabbed into the net by McMillan at close range.

But Pats weren't on level terms for long, thanks to a moment of brilliance from Ukrainian international Igor Khudobyak. St. Pats didn't leave enough men back after mounting an attack and were caught on the break by Karpaty. Khudobyak received the ball at the left corner of the Pats box and deftly curled the ball past Rogers into the top left corner.

Karpaty didn't ease up on Pats afterwards either- showing their class by passing Pete Mahon's side off the pitch at times. With eight minutes of normal time left they extinguished any lingering hopes of progression for Pats with a superb team goal.

There were at least ten players involved in a superb passing move which took the ball from the left flank to the right. The ball was eventually struck at goal and Gary Rogers could only parry it into the path of Igor Oshchypko. Oshchypko made no mistake on the rebound- putting the ball into the roof of the net for 3-1.

St. Patrick's Athletic: Gary Rogers; Derek Pender, Brian Shortall, Evan McMillan [Conor Kenna '69], Ian Bermingham; Derek Doyle [Danny North '61], Stephen Bradley [Ian Daly '27], Shane McFaul, David Mulcahy; David McMillan, Daryl Kavanagh.
Subs not used: Chris Bennion, Shane Guthrie, Paul Crowley, Anthony Murphy.

FC Karpaty Lviv: Andriy Tlumak; Ivan Milosevic, Igor Oshchypko, Sergei Zenjov [German Pacheco '68], Igor Khudobyak; Mykhaylo Kopolovets [Andrei Voronkov '55], Yaroslav Martynyuk, Borja Gomez, Andriy Tkachuk; Artim Fedetskiy, Lucas Perez Martinez [Cristobal Martinez '78].
Subs not used: Martin Bogatinov, Oleg Golodyuk, Taras Petrivskiy, Gregor Balazic.

Referee: Ovidiu Alin Hategan (Romania).
Attendance: 2,000 (estimate).
Extratime.ie Man of the Match: Igor Khudobyak.