Shelbourne 2 Hajduk Split 0 (Shels win 4-3 on agg): Long used to seeing their side's efforts descend into mayhem as they chased hopeless European causes late in games at Tolka Park, Shelbourne fans watched with a mixture of delight and disbelief towards the end of last night's Champions League qualifier at the Drumcondra ground.

Hajduk Split's pedigree at this level marked them out as strong favourites to come through against their Irish opponents, even after conceding two goals to Pat Fenlon's men in last week's first leg. Instead, Ivan Katalinic's men crumbled late on to a superior home side, whose manager outwitted his opposite number just as his players outplayed their opponents.

All of those bad nights seemed like no more than a dream as the 10,000-strong crowd cheered a team into the dressing-room that had more than earned their place in the third round qualifying round next week when Spanish giants Deportivo La Coruna will come to Dublin.

It was hard to fault the performances of any of the locals, but Dave Rogers still seemed an unlikely hero at the end. On Tuesday, the Liverpool-born defender had talked of watching Everton's European triumphs of the 1980s from the terraces.

Last night, the 28-year-old was making a little bit of European history himself, scoring a tremendous long-range goal 11 minutes from time that turned the tie decisively in Shelbourne's favour long before Alan Moore's injury-time tap-in.

In the wake of last week's 3-2 win, Hajduk may not have travelled needing a goal to go through, but with Mario Carevic restored to his preferred position the visitors clearly possessed the capacity to punish Shelbourne.

From early on, though, Fenlon seemed to have struck upon a promising balance between attack and defence, although it was one constructed as much on his players' willingness to run tirelessly as it was on the tactical approach retained from the away leg - which involved Jason Byrne playing out on the right flank and Glen Fitzpatrick battling away by himself up front.

Defence didn't look to be the Croatian side's strongest department, but Fitzpatrick's lack of a strike partner left the visiting side's back three with a strong numerical advantage when the ball came their way.

Around him, though, many of the Shelbourne stars were shining brightly and the Hajduk defence looked uncomfortable when the likes of Alan Moore and Jason Byrne were running at them from midfield.

Moore looked ideally suited to his role in the centre of midfield and from there the Dubliner producing a couple of the home side's best scoring chances.

The first came on 12 minutes when he flicked Byrne's cross from the right just over from a couple of yards out, but better was to come midway through the half when he left his marker for dead thanks to a wonderful turn and then forced a fine stop from a fully stretched Tvrtko Kale from 25 metres out.

Kale's finest moment, though, came after 20 minutes when Moore's free was headed down by Fitzpatrick. The goal looked certain, but the 'keeper stopped brilliantly with his foot having already moved the wrong way.

Hajduk threatened on occasion too but Stuart Byrne did a good deal to frustrate them from his position just in front of the central defenders, while the back four looked consistently solid.

On a couple of occasions, the quick running and swift passing of the visitors did catch the locals out, but when Dragan Blatnjak and Natko Racki combined well to create their best scoring chance of the opening hour Steve Williams was quick off his line to save at the 23-year-old's feet.

Though the game tightened up a bit in the second period, Jason Byrne's contribution got better and, from the moment Fenlon finally opted to shuffle his pack 17 minutes from time by replacing Fitzpatrick with Ger McCarthy, the home side looked more likely to make the breakthrough.

When it came, though, it was Rogers who obliged. Once or twice earlier on his passing out of defence had been questionable, but when his chance came at the other end - courtesy of a looping Moore cross and a mistake by Hrvoje Vejic - his finishing was absolutely flawless, a stunning 25-metre volley soaring into the top left corner.

Hajduk almost scrambled an equaliser within a minute, but as they pressed forward with growing abandon late on they were caught out again.

Joseph Ndo set up Moore for a close-range finish that sent the crowd into raptures and sealed Shelbourne's place in the final round before the competition's group stages.

Also in the third qualifying round, Manchester United will tackle Romania's Dinamo Bucharest and free-scoring Wisla Krakow will face Real Madrid. The Polish side completed an 11-2 success over WIT Georgia Tbilisi with a 3-0 home victory last night.

Austria's Graz AK will play Liverpool, Sweden's Djurgarden booked a tie against Juventus and Russia's CSKA Moscow secured a date with Rangers.

The third qualifying round first-leg ties will be played on August 10th and 11th with the returns two weeks later.

SHELBOURNE: Williams; Heary, Rogers, Harris, Crawford; S Byrne; J Byrne (Ndo, 90 mins), Moore, Hoolahan (Crawford, 86 mins), Cahill; Fitzpatrick (Mcarthy, 73 mins).

HAJDUK SPLIT: Kale; Zilic, Rukavina (Mejic, 81 mins), Neretljak; Suto (Damjanovic, 83 mins), Vejic, Carevic, Pralija, Filekovic; Racki (Dragicevic, 56 mins), Blatnjak.

Referee: S Sukhina (Russia).