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EUROPA LEAGUE - St Patrick's Athletic 1 (O'Connor 49) Steaua Bucharest 2 (Nicolita 80, Ochirosii 89) :THEY CAN scarcely question which was the better side over the two legs of this Europa League play-off but St Patrick’s Athletic did claim, with some justification afterwards, that last night’s defeat at the RDS was a little harsh on them given the levels of effort and energy they expended in pursuit of what always looked to be an elusive target on this sort of stage.
In the end they gave their fans something to cheer about shortly after half-time when Garreth O’Connor narrowed the gap to two goals but having narrowly missed out on a second a few minutes later when an Alan Cawley free hit the woodwork, the Irish side self-destructed in the closing stages as defensive mistakes were made while looking to attack handed goals to Banel Nicolita and Razvan Ochirosii. The victory for the visitors sent the large and rather excitable crowd of locally-based Steaua supporters home happy.
