Ireland centre-back Andrew Omobamidele started at centre-back and kept a clean sheet as Strasbourg RC stormed back in the second leg with a 4-0 home win to beat Mainz and make the Uefa Conference League semi-finals.
The French side were 2-0 down from the first leg but more than made up the deficit with goals from Sebastian Nanasi, Abdoul Outtara, Julio Enciso and Emmanuel Emegha.
Omobamidele signed for the Ligue 1 permanently from Nottingham Forest last summer and the 23-year-old has been a regular in the team since manager Gary O’Neil took over from Liam Rosenier in January.
The Leixlip native is looking to break back into the Ireland set-up, having made the last of his 10 Ireland caps in 2024.
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In the semi-finals, Strasbourg will meet Rayo Vallecano who held on despite a 3-1 defeat in Greece to win 4-3 on aggregate.
Earlier, AZ Alkmaar left Troy Parrott on the bench as they fell to a 5-2 aggregate defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk. AZ drew the second leg 2-2 at home, but the damage was done with a 3-0 defeat in the opening leg. Shakhtar will meet Premier League side Crystal Palace in the semi-finals after they lost to Fiorentina but comfortably won the tie 4-2.
In the Europa League, it will be an all-English semi-final as Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa progressed, beating Porto and Bologna respectively.
Porto were left ruing an eighth-minute red card to Jan Bednarek as Forest’s European adventure continued with a 1-0 win over the Portuguese side. Morgan Gibbs-White scored the vital goal in the 12th minute. Villa were comfortable 4-0 winners over Bologna with goals from Ollie Watkins, Emi Buendia, Morgan Rogers and Ezri Konsa, winning 7-1 on aggregate.
In the other quarter-finals, it was a night to forget for the Spanish teams as Celta Vigo were knocked out by Freiburg and Real Betis were beaten by Braga. Freiburg and Braga will meet in the semi-final first leg on April 30th.
