SOCCER/EUROPA LEAGUE/Steaua Bucharest 3 St Patrick's Athletic 0:WHEN THEY won the European Cup in 1986, Steaua Bucharest scored 13 times on the way to the final. By close of business at the Ghencea stadium in the Romanian capital last night they'd already matched that tally in this year's Europa League campaign and all but assured themselves six group games in addition to next week's outing in Dublin to build on it.
St Patrick’s Athletic manager Jeff Kenna came close to conceding the tie afterwards, admitting his side had been outplayed “by a class act” and insisting there was “no shame in losing to a better side on the night”, before adding, when asked about the RDS game, that his men would “give it a go” and see what happens.
“In the first half tonight, Gary (Rogers) made a couple of good saves while we were a little fortunate some of their finishing was poor but the plan then was to keep it scoreless for the first 20 minutes of the second half and unfortunately that didn’t happen. To concede a third after 80 minutes is a bit of a killer but we’re at the business end of the qualifying stages now and it was always going to be difficult.”
Kenna had suggested beforehand that the absence of a crowd would make the evening feel a little surreal and he was certainly proven right. For half an hour before kick-off music blasted out of the stadium sound system and ads for oil, suits and replica shirts flashed up on the big screen behind the goal the Dubliners would defend for the first half.
The 50 or so journalists present ignored both but their chatter was about the only thing to break the silence after the teams arrived on to the pitch and the music suddenly stopped.
During play the gentle murmurs of reporters discussing the game and checking facts with each other became mixed with on-field chatter punctuated on occasion by the likes of Stuart Byrne screaming “Linesman!” At one point, a steward’s mobile phone rang and his end of the subsequent conversation could he heard along the length of the main stand.
On its top floor, behind glass and occupying the outsized seats reserved for VIPs, the 70 or so visiting fans who made it out to the game in the end looked on unheard although midway through the second half, with his side 2-0 up, Steaua’s owner Georghe Becali appeared at an open window a floor below the Irish supporters and, to the delight of the local media, started shouting encouragement to his players.
Those two first goals had come in the space of eight minutes with the first following quickly on from what looked a reasonable penalty claim for the visitors. Declan O’Brien, Glen Fitzpatrick and Garreth O’Connor were all involved in what was probably the Irish side’s neatest piece of build-up play all night and when O’Connor then fed Byrne, the midfielder appeared to be tripped by Alexandru Tudose just as he moved inside the area. The referee, though, was quick to wave play on with his disinterest enraging the Irish.
St Patrick’s had worked hard to get to the break without conceding but there were times when they rode their luck a little and Kenna must have been a little concerned as he gave his team talk.
Still, it had seemed set to be much worse after 90 seconds or so when Banel Nicolita crossed low for Pantelis Kapetanos only for the Greek striker, perhaps because of a poor bounce on the terrible surface, to completely miss what should have been a simple tap-in.
The chance marked the start of a difficult night for left-back Enda Stevens who appeared to have been picked out by the home side as a weakness although to be fair to the 19-year-old, the whole back four was finding it difficult to cope with the strength, pace and movement of their opponents. Soon after they came close to conceding three times in quick succession, Eugen Baciu missing the best of the chances from a few yards out.
Dave Partridge then fired low and wide from just inside the area when he should have done better after Garreth O’Connor’s free had been knocked down and Damien Lynch missed the target too after doing well to tee up the shot in the first place.
By then, though, his side was two down following Nicolita’s low drive from the right side for the first and a tap-in by substitute Bogdan Stancu that Nicolita set up. Kenna sought to shake things up with Mark Quigley coming on for Fitzpatrick but the Dubliners looked a rather distant second best, particularly when Kapetanos beat Jamie Harris to the ball before feeding Romeo Surdu who drew in three defenders and then squared for an unmarked Surdu at the right-hand post to score.
The other Europa League game played in Bucharest last night, between Dinamo and Slovan Liberec, had to be abandoned three minutes from time because of crowd trouble that followed the Czech side’s second goal.
Denis Cruise of the FAI was the official Uefa delegate at the game which was overseen by Austrian referee Thomas Einwaller, whose decision it was to stop the match. Cruise will file his report to Uefa today with the Romanians facing the possibility of expulsion from the competition and a ban for future seasons.
STEAUA BUCHAREST: Tatarusanu; Golanski (Tininho, 86 mins), Tudose, Baciu, Marin; Nicolita, Onicas, Ionescu, Ochirosii (Stancu, 53 mins); Surdu, Kapetanos (Grzelak, 81 mins).
ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Rogers; Gavin, Harris, Partridge, Stevens; O’Brien, Lynch (Cawley, 86 mins), Byrne (Dempsey, 70 mins), O’Connor, Guy; Fitzpatrick (Quigley, 61 mins).
Referee: A Nikolaev (Russia).
