Viking pillage of Sligo all but ends European dream

It was always going to be a difficult task for John Russell's Sligo Rovers, but it looks as though their European adventures are all but over for another year as they suffered a heavy defeat in the first leg of their Europa Conference League third qualifying round tie against Viking FK.

Rovers were under pressure from the off, and were 2-0 down at half-time.

Things didn't improve in the second-half, with the relentless home side not giving up, making sure that they had almost put this tie to bed before travelling to Sligo next week.

The Bit O'Red's European journey is the stuff dreams are made of, and manager John Russell spoke mid-week about his desire to keep this run going.

His side defied the odds to overcome Motherwell across two legs in the second round, but knew tonight's opponents would pose a tougher challenge.

The Sligo boss kept his faith in the same team that started across both legs against Motherwell.

The Norwegian side weren't taking this challenge lightly, and were wary of the threat that Rovers' Aidan Keena brings to the table.

Manager Bjarte Lunde Aarsheim brought Harald Tangen into his starting XI, the only change from the side that shocked Sparta Prague last week to reach this stage.

Neither of these two sides were expected, on paper, to overcome their opponents.

But, Viking were favourites to progress from the third round prior to the meeting at Viking Stadion in Stavanger.

The key for the Bit O'Red was to keep the tie alive heading into the second-leg next week at The Showgrounds.

And those hopes took a fairly big dent early on when Rovers were 2-0 down after just eight minutes, and were forced into two changes with just 22 minutes on the clock.

Zlatko Tripic was causing problems for the visitors immediately,