Rubin Kazan 4 Shamrock Rovers 1:NELSON VALDEZ had the quality to clinically punish bad defending as Shamrock Rovers were frozen out in Kazan last night.
A brilliantly taken brace of goals from the Paraguayan international striker put Rovers to the sword as Michael O’Neill’s men lost for the fifth time in Group A.
In temperatures of minus five, Rovers craved a positive start and appeared to have got it, getting forward well inside the opening minutes to win the first corner of the night, albeit from an unforced error by Salvatore Bocchetti.
But Kazan’s touch, skill and incisiveness wasn’t long in carving Rovers open and they had the lead on 10 minutes, as Rovers conceded an early goal in Europe once again.
Played in again by Ecuadorian Christian Noboa, Valdez powered past Ken Oman a little too easily before drilling past Ryan Thompson.
Rovers struck back within two minutes, though. Ronan Finn won a free on the right, which was whipped to the far post by Billy Dennehy for Oman to score with a downward header.
Having survived a couple of half chances, with Valdez and Obafemi Martins shooting off target, Rovers might have gone ahead on the half hour.
Stephen Rice put Dennehy away on the right and he cut in only to shoot feebly at goalkeeper Sergei Ryzhikov – who did spill the ball out for a corner – with Karl Sheppard screaming for the ball in the centre.
A goalkeeping fumble at the other end should have seen Rubin regain the lead minutes later.
Thompson flapped at a cross which was pulled back by Aleksandr Ryazantsev for Noboa, whose shot was brilliant hacked off the line by Dan Murray.
But it was a short-lived reprieve as Rubin regain the lead on 36 minutes.
Martins did well on the edge of the area to set up Bebras Natcho, who turned well to find the bottom corner of Thompson’s net with a crisp drive.
Valdez sealed the win on 51 minutes, latching on to a ball over the top to beat the offside trap and ruthlessly slam home.
Martins got a very contentious fourth 11 minutes later. The Nigerian tapped home after Gokdeniz Karadeniz’s cross ricocheted luckily into his path despite the goal line assistant not having seen it had gone out of play.
Thompson made a good save from Alan Kasaev’s close-range effort on 80 minutes after substitute Vladimir Dyadyun broke on the right.
A minute later Sheppard shaved the Rubin crossbar with a volley following Enda Stevens cross from the left.
“The disappointing thing for us was the nature of the goals we conceded,” said O’Neill afterwards.
“We were poor defensively at times in the game and there was some controversy over the fourth goal in particular.
“At times, particularly in the second half, Rubin showed their quality particularly on the counterattack.”
The first goal set the tone.
“It was a poor goal, Ken made a bad decision,” said O’Neill.
“Against the likes of Martins and Valdez bad decisions defensively will be punished.
“That was the case throughout the game. We need to try to omit those bad decisions but against this quality of player you don’t get the chance to make amends. That was shown tonight.
“To be fair, they reacted well to score the equaliser. At 2-1, I thought it was a very even game, but ultimately Kazan showed their quality in the second half.
“I can’t ask for any more of my players. It’s been a long season, that was our 58th game, so they are very tired.
“But they’ve had a fantastic season, are league champions again and had great experience in Europe.”
RUBIN KAZAN: Ryzhikov; Kaleshin, Sharonov, Navas, Bocchetti; Ryazantsev (Dyadyun, 71 mins), Boboia, Natcho, Karadeniz (Ansaldi, 68 mins); Valdez (Kasaev, 61 mins), Matins.
SHAMROCK ROVERS: Thompson; Sullivan, Oman, Murray, Stevens; Rice; Dennehy, Turner (Twigg, 81 mins), Finn (O’Donnell, 69 mins), Paterson (Kilduff, 69 mins); Sheppard.
Referee: Harald Lechner (Austria).
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