Sporting Fingal 2-3 CS Maritimo (agg 4-6)
Sporting Fingal lost out to Portuguese side CS Maritimo in an enthralling Europa League encounter at Dalymount Park on Thursday night before the club’s biggest ever crowd.
After losing the first leg 3-2, Fingal looked to press in search of that vital goal which might have been enough to clinch a third round slot.
Instead, it was Maritimo who had the first chance in the opening minute when Baba put through Cherrad. He rounded Brendan Clarke only for Lorcan Fitzgerald to cover across from left to save an almost certain goal.
Clarke was then forced to tip the ball over when a free kick from Tcho swerved in on top of the Fingal shot stopper.
The Fingal keeper was then forced into a superb save when Baba turned and shot from over 20 yards out.
Fingal then put on some pressure of their own when Shaun Williams picked out Conan Byrne with a diagonal pass who forced a corner.
Two more corners followed but the hosts failed to capitalise on their purple patch.
The hosts were beginning to get to grips with the Maritimo attack and in doing so began to put some good passes together.
Then on 20 minutes Shaun Maher took down Dias inside the box to give the visitors a chance to take the lead. And that they did when Alonso slotted past Clarke meaning Fingal needed to score twice to win the tie and go through.
It could have been two shortly after however, when the Portuguese side broke after a Williams free kick hit the Maritimo wall.
Fingal’s blushes were spared when Cherrad miscued his cross and Maher cleared his lines.
Maritimo were getting more chances as Fingal pushed forward. Tcho picked out Marquinho who was free in the box but shot wide of the mark.
From the resulting goal kick Ronan Finn got the hosts first shot on target when he forced Pecanha to fumble. But the keeper gathered just before an onrushing Alan Kirby could get to the loose ball.
Maritimo came out in the second half looking to close out the game and forced Clarke to clear once more.
On the hour mark Danilo broke down the left flank and cut back inside before forcing Clarke to parry wide.
Finn then had the ball in the Maritimo net after Williams put Finn through only for his goal to be ruled offside.
Shortly after this Liam Buckley introduced Eamon Zayed and at the same time changed the formation to a more attacking 4-4-2.
On 67 minutes Maquinho all but secured his sides’ path to the next round when he beat Clarke with a shot from the edge of the area.
It could have been three soon after when Marquinho’s cross was deflected of the Fingal cross bar by Fitzgerald.
Despite the deficit Fingal continued to push on in search of what would be a consolation goal.
Fitzgerald showed a great touch to get a long ball under control but his shot went over the cross bar.
Zayed then found himself free in the box only to head Byrne’s cross over.
The striker did find the net just a few minutes later when Byrne once more found him in the box. This time he didn’t miss and gave Fingal a lifeline.
Almost straight away Fingal came close to levelling the game when Zayed turned provider but Kirby’s header was superbly saved by Pecanha for the stop of the game.
From the save Maritimo broke down field and Kanu rounded Clarke before shooting wide of an empty net.
And with four minutes left on the clock Kanu made up from his earlier mistake when he found the net to end the tie.
Zayed netted his second with just one minute left on the clock after a cross from Williams.
Sporting Fingal: Clarke, O’Brien, Maher, Browne, Fitzgerald, McFaul (Zayed 65 mins), Williams, Finn, Byrne, Kirby, Crowe Subs Not Used: Gannon, Frost, Cahill, Dawson, James, Quigley
CS Maritimo: Pecanha, Alonso, Robson, Esteves, Marquinho (Amaral 71 mins), Souso, Baba, Cherrad (Fidelis 89 mins), Tcho (Kanu 81 mins), Danilo, Guilherme Subs Not Used: Boek, Dylan, Olim, Miguel
Referee: Marco Borg (Malta)
Attendance: 2,150.