Rovers beat Ludogorets but bow out of Champions League

Shamrock Rovers gave it everything only to come up short as Ludogorets left Tallaght Stadium relieved to be safely through to the third qualifying round of the Champions League.

Chasing a 3-0 first leg deficit against the Bulgarian champions, Rovers got the early lead they craved through Aaron Greene.

The miracle looked possible when, with Ludogorets down to 10 men, Aidomo Emakhu came off the bench to add a second late on.

But despite a rousing dominant display by Stephen Bradley's side, Ludogorets hit back through Cauly Souza in stoppage time to seal their passage.

Rovers now meet Shkupi of Macedonia in the third qualifying round of the Europa League, at home first next week.

With Gary O’Neill making his 100th appearance for the club, the Hoops were positive from the start, Graham Burke almost getting in behind after a clever Richie Towell ball over the top three minutes in.

Five minutes later, Burke, O’Neill and skipper Ronan Finn combined for the latter’s cross to the back post which just had too much on it for the inrushing Towell.

It wasn’t long before Rovers had some frantic defending to do as Ludogorets came alive.

Sean Hoare initially headed out for a second corner which was whipped over with venomous pace by Kiril Despodov for skipper Anton Nedyalkov to bring a superb save from Alan Mannus with a flashing header.

Rovers responded to take a deserved lead on 21 minutes.

Burke’s cross-field ball picked out Andy Lyons. Though taking a slight deflection, the cross still found Burke in the area whose header brought a fine one-handed save from Sergio Padt.

The ball broke kindly for the alert Greene who rifled the rebound into the roof of the net.

Continuing to press, the Hoops almost doubled their lead on 36 minutes. Again the