SOCCER: Shamrock Rovers 0 FC Copenhagen 2:THE SCORELINE, perhaps, makes it look just a little more comfortable than it was but neither Roland Nilsson nor his employers will mind too much as they wake up this morning having safely negotiated another significant step towards the cash cow stages of this year's Champions League.

Rovers, for their part, will probably remember last week’s first leg of this tie with more regret than last night’s second. Taking one of the couple of very good chances they enjoyed to grab an away goal at the Parken stadium might really have rattled the Danish champions before last night’s return game.

Instead, Copenhagen were just about in the driving seat as they arrived in Dublin and having survived an early scare or two they did comfortably enough, courtesy of a Dame N’Doye goal in the first half and a Christian Bolanos effort in the second, to progress with what will still look like an impressive victory on their Uefa stats sheet.

The home side actually controlled large chunks of the game, with the likes of Conor McCormack, Ronan Finn and Chris Turner pressing opponents at every opportunity and passing the ball well when they had it.

Really, though, that only really mattered as long as a single goal would have levelled things up and that all changed just before the break when N’Doye was virtually gifted the opener from a poorly defended set piece.

After that, in truth, Copenhagen generally took on the air of a side that was coasting into the next round and the second goal 17 minutes from the end, simply confirmed what everyone amongst the sell-out crowd already knew.

The opening goal, when it came was still a bitter a blow, though not quite as big a shock as the one a week ago had been. The Rovers fans, to judge by the noise they were making, were clearly encouraged by the way their side was playing and O’Neill must have been pleased with the manner in which his midfield and full backs were getting forward to exert pressure deep inside Copenhagen’s half for stretches.

Their problem, though, as it had been in the away leg was that Twigg struggled whenever his team-mates didn’t get forward quickly enough to lend their support.

The problem was evident at the other end too where Dan Murray and Craig Sives looked composed in possession and determined without it, but still just a little bit hesitant whenever opponents, particularly the highly impressive N’Doye, took control of the ball in an area of the pitch from which they could do some real damage.

The Senegalese striker gave an initial idea of what he was capable of doing midway through the first half, when after a quickly taken free he sprinted into the space in front of the two centre halves and let fly with a low shot that goalkeeper Ryan Thompson did well to push off target.

It was by far the best chance Nilsson’s side had created up until that point, while Turner had already sent a close-range header off the underside of the crossbar during early exchanges that the home side had clearly had the better of.

For all their pressure, though, Rovers had failed to make the breakthrough they required at some stage of the night and they brought a certain amount of trouble upon themselves by needlessly conceding free-kicks.

From one given away by McCormack, who then inexplicably contested the decision to the point where he was booked, a few minutes before the break, the Danes won a corner.

And just like the one four minutes into the opening leg, Rovers defended it poorly with Thompson again a bystander as Pat Sullivan, at full stretch, effectively flicked it on for N’Doye to turn home from a yard beyond the far post.

Getting three goals against opponents of this calibre was always going to be an unfeasibly tall order and though Rovers toiled admirably enough they rarely threatened very seriously with a Twigg header in the second half that flew narrowly wide of the target about as good as it got.

Copenhagen didn’t need to do much in reply but after forcing a decent save or two from Thompson, Pape Diouf prompted a brilliant one from the Jamaican stopper late in the second half only for Bolanos to step in for a very simply follow up.

O’Neill looked to shake things up a little but any hope of victory was long gone and Rovers must now hope that they are a little more fortunate in their next European draw and a little more ruthless around goal against whoever they end up playing for a place in the Europa League’s group stages.

SHAMROCK ROVERS:Thompson; Sullivan, Sives, Murray, Stevens; McCormack; McCabe (Kelly, 65 mins), Turner, Finn (Rice, 75 mins), Dennehy; Twigg (Kilduff, 75 mins).

FC COPENHAGEN: Wiland; Sigurdsson, Ottesen, Zanka, Bengtsson; Kristenssen (Absalonsen, 90+3), de Souza, Grindheim, Bolanos (Delaney, 79 mins); Diouf.(Santin, 38 mins), N'Doye.

Referee: H Ozkahya (Turkey).