Shamrock Rovers beat Shkupi to continue European odyssey

Rory Gaffney and Aidomo Emakhu scored big second-half goals to keep Shamrock Rovers’ adventure in Europe on the boil as Stephen Bradley’s side delivered the caution and control required to see off FK Shkupi in the sapping heat of Skopje’s National Arena Todor Proeski.

As the Irish Examiner reports, the victory guarantees Rovers a group stage place in the Europa Conference League as a minimum and the €3.3 million basic prize money that goes with it.

Prior to that fallback, Hoops have something of a free hit in the play-off round of the Europa League against Ferencváros, with increased riches there should they make the group stages of that competition.

The Hungarian side were beaten 4-2 on aggregate by Qarabağ of Azerbaijan to drop out of the Champions League third qualifying round.

Rovers travel for the first leg in Budapest next week.

The North Macedonians chased the 3-1 first leg deficit from the off, Adem Ali slicing wide after just 22 seconds while they forced two corners inside the opening two minutes as Rovers had to dig in early on.

The League of Ireland champions responded positively with a terrific team move that almost brought them the lead on four minutes.

Skipper Ronan Finn, Dylan Watts, Richie Towell and Andy Lyons were all involved in the build-up before striker Gaffney’s angled shot was turned onto a post and out for a corner by Kristijan Naumovski.

Shkupi had their goalkeeper to thank again three minutes later following another sweeping move by Rovers.

Gaffney and Finn set up Towell who looked set to score only for Naumovski to make himself big and deflect the shot which looped over the crossbar and out for another corner.

The game settled down after its hectic start, Shkupi enjoying a fair deal of