- Stephen Walsh
- Fri, Jul 14 2017
Jose Truyols broke Cork City hearts and silenced the majority of the 6,441 crowd at Turner's Cross tonight to give AEK Larnaca a 1-0 advantage heading into next week's return leg.
The first half was a tight affair with little in the way of chances for either side. However Truyols fired home in the second half to give City a mountain to climb ahead of next week.
Cork City made one change to the side that progressed in Europe last Thursday night with Steven Beattie coming into the squad in place of Jimmy Keohane. New signing Kieran Sadlier could only be content with a place on the bench.
City’s last foray into Europe against Cypriot opposition ended with City emerging victorious over Apollon Limassol. The manager that day, Damien Richardson, was in attendance at the game tonight along with the Preston North End team who are training at the nearby Fota Island resort.
The opening forty five was a scrappy affair with both teams cancelling each other out at both ends of the field. The Cypriots played with a pace that many opposing teams this season have not on visiting Turner's Cross.
They forced City into a number of errors and as a result nearly found the breakthrough as Florian Taulemesse saw his shot from close range saved superbly by Mark McNulty.
Sean Maguire, playing his final game for City in the Cross ,was his usual energetic self trying to get at the end of everything. He created City’s best chance of the opening half on 23 minutes when his superb cross into the box was headed out by Daniel Mosjov for a corner before Steven Dooley could reach it at the back post.
The second half saw a much quicker game with City coming out of the blocks early and creating a series of attacking chances but the final ball was cut out repeatedly by the Larnaca backline.
Beattie in particular was running at the rearguard to much success but save for one or two penalty shouts, Larnaca had not much to fear despite City upping the tempo with Kevin O’Connor getting forward at every opportunity.
On 70 minutes disaster struck for the home side. A cross into the box was awkwardly hit out for a corner by Beattie. In the goalmouth scramble following the corner, Truyols forced the ball home.
City played some of their best football after going behind with Maguire leading from the front with Gearóid Morrissey spraying the ball out to all sides of the attack.
With 15 minutes to go both Achille Campionn and Shane Griffin were introduced in order to improve the attacking affair but they could find no breakthrough.
In injury time some heroic defending allowed Larneca leave the ground with a clean sheet as both Gary Buckley and Maguire saw chances from close range blocked.
After the final whistle, both Kevin O’Connor and Sean Maguire received a presentation from the Lord Mayor of Cork, Tony Fitzgerald, in appreciation of their performances for the Rebel Army.
Cork City: Mark McNulty; Steven Beattie, Conor McCormack, Ryan Delaney, Kevin O’Connor; Greg Bolger (Achille Campion 75), Gearóid Morrissey; Karl Sheppard (Shane Griffin 78), Gary Buckley, Steven Dooley (Kieran Sadlier 61); Sean Maguire.
Subs not used: Alan Smith, Jimmy Keohane, Connor Ellis, Conor McCarthy.
Booked: Stephen Dooley (37), Steven Beattie (71), Shane Griffin (87).
AEK Larnaca: Juan Pablo; Joan Truyols, Daniel Mosjov, David Catala, Marios Antoniades; Jorge Larena (Pnisiforos Rousias 89), Vincent Laban; Ivan Trickovski (Vladimir Boljevic 84), Joan Tomas (Alberto Chamorro 76), Hector Hevel; Florian Taulemesse.
Subs not used: Antonis Giorgallides, Nestoras Mytides, Radovan Pankov, Constantinos Charalabides.
Booked: Florian Taulemesse (20), Mario Antoniades (56).
Referee: Francois Letexier (France).
Attendance: 6,441 (official).
Extratime.ie Player of the Match: Ivan Trickovski (AEK Larnaca).
