The first-ever qualifying round of the new UEFA Europa League finished last night, and saw teams from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland participate. In total, 6 teams from these shores were in action, and only one (Motherwell) made it through, dispatching fellow British side Llanelli 3-1 on aggregate.
This result came after a shock 1-0 victory in Scotland for the Welsh team, but the ‘Well were not going to lose their pride again, and put in a comfortable 3-0 victory at Park y Scarlets. A disappointing result for ‘The Reds’, but will no doubt be proud of their efforts.
The other Welsh team in this round, TNS (The New Saints) were unfortunate to lose out 2-1 to Fram Reykjavik, making it 4-2 on aggregate to the Icelandic team.
A bit further west, and you would find that Northern Irish teams failed dismaly, with Lisburn Distillery, novices of this competition taking an 11-1 aggregate thrashing at the hands of FC Zestaponi. A 5-1 loss on home turf was followed up with a 6-0 demolition in Georgia for the Whites. Even Linfield, one of the proclaimed ‘giants’ of football in NI, did not do much better, with a 3-0 (7-0 agg.) loss to Danish outfit Randers.
Finally the Republic of Ireland, whose only representative in this round, Sligo Rovers, came the closest (of local teams), to beat non-British opposition, being knocked out with a 2-1 loss (3-2 agg) to Vllaznia of Albania.
So despite these losses, which will be quite painful for the supporters of these teams (who must now wait another year), we know that European club football is back, and it will not be too long before the big teams get involved…
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