Molde did enough to back up Shamrock Rovers' boss Stephen Bradley’s belief that they are the strongest side the Hoops will come up against in their Europa Conference League group, as they breezed past the League of Ireland side at the Aker Stadion.
The Dubliners did little to trouble a much stronger opposition on what was a chastening night for Rovers, who now sit bottom of Group F with just one point and three games to go.
Ola Brynhildsen scored a goal in each half for the Scandinavians, who racked up 26 attempts at goal in this game. Etzaz Hussain netted Molde’s third in the second half, capitalising on an Alan Mannus mistake.
With vital league points up for grabs this weekend, the Rovers management surely had Sunday's visit of Shelbourne to Tallaght (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player) in mind when picking their starting team.
The Hoops boss rotated his side, making five changes from an easy win over Sligo Rovers last Saturday. Aidomo Emakhu, Aaron Greene, Andy Lyons, Justin Ferizaj and Sean Hoare all returned having not being named in the starting eleven at the Showgrounds, while star players Jack Byrne and Graham Burke, both pivotal in the Sligo win, were benched.
So accustomed to dictating play in their games on the domestic scene, Rovers spent very little time with the ball in the Molde half in the opening '45.
Described by Bradley this week as 'the best team in the group’, Erling Moe’s side dominated play and were unfortunate not to lead by more than Brynhildsen’s opener at the interval.
Apprehensive at the back, the Dubliners sat back and struggled to deal with the rise in standard early on.
Kristian Eriksen slashed wide after eight minutes after Martin Linnes’ cross from the right was only cleared as far as the edge of the
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