Steaua Bucharest 3 St Patrick's Athletic 0
Steaua Bucharest's Italian coach Romano Bergodi limited his research of St Patrick's Athletic to a quick glance at a DVD supplied by the Dublin club on Tuesday night, preferring instead to learn as he goes against Jeff Kenna's side at the Stadium Ghencea tonight.

It was the perfect ammunition for Kenna’s pre-match teamtalk and the mantra in the build-up became ‘Believe’. For 45 minutes in the Romanian capital it looked like the Pat’s boss might have got it right, but the second half proved it was his counterpart who hit the nail on the head.

After a goalless first half Kenna will have been by far the happier of the two but he watched his side get torn apart after the break as dreams of the Europa League proper were shattered by three goals.

Romanian international Banel Nicolita began the rout 10 minutes after the restart and he was on hand again to set up substitute Bogdan Stancu for the second nine minutes later.

Stancu grabbed his second ain the 80th minute but in truth it could have been a few more.

Steaua’s best chance of the first half came in the second minute when Nicolita fired a cross in for the unmarked Pantelas Kapetanos but the striker missed his kick and Gary Rogers’ goal went unthreatened.

Pat’s kept them at a distance from then on, with Dave Partridge and Jamie Harris marshalling the back four well.

Left back Enda Stevens looked vulnerable at times, however, and got off the hook twice when Romeo Surdu and Eugen Baciu wasted chances after creeping in behind.

Stevens’ free-kick brought about the best chance of an Pat’s goal when it was nodded down by Harris and found it’s way to Partridge, whose shot whistled past the post.

Rogers was called upon to deny Nicolita in the 36th minute but he half petered in frustration for the homeside and the visitors would have been happy with their lot at that stage.

Bergodi had obviously done his homework, though and ordered his man to target Stevens. It paid off when Nicolita peeled off and received the ball at a tight angle before despatching across Rogers and into the bottom corner.

Minutes later he almost got a second when losing Stevens but volleyed just wide.

With Glen Fitzpatrick having toiled alone up front for an hour Mark Quigley was introduced as Declan O’Brien went up front, but the substitute’s first contribution was a crunching tackle on Petru Marin that earned him a yellow card.

Worse was to come as Stancu finished off a neat move instigated by Nicolita’s one-two with Andrei Ionescu and Kenna called on Gary Dempsey to replace Stuart Byrne and put his foot on the ball.

It worked to an extent but Pat’s always looked in trouble when Steaua ran at them and Stancu’s second was all too easy after Kapetanos and Surdu picked their way through for the sub to tap in.

Quigley picked out Lynch on the edge of the box for a goal that would have offered hope but the shot from the edge of the box flew just wide.

Pat’s have it all to do at the RDS next week.