UEFA CUP Hertha Berlin 2 St Patrick's Athletic 0: St Patrick's Athletic's chances of progressing in the Uefa Cup look slim, despite the eircom Premier Division side's gutsy performance in their first round, first leg tie resulting in a 2-0 defeat to Hertha Berlin at the Olympic Stadium in the German capital.
Pat's contained their illustrious opponents impressively for the first half but substitute Nicu broke their resistance four minutes after the break, before Brazilian Cicero put the tie out of the Inchicore side's reach.
John McDonnell's side created little in the way of chances but Hertha's defence looked far from impregnable at times and hope will remain that the dream can be salvaged when the sides meet in the second leg at the RDS next week.
The centre midfield pairing of Keith Fahey and Gary Dempsey certainly weren't overawed and worked extremely hard protecting their back four as Hertha were reduced to just two sights of Barry Ryan's goal before the break.
A Marko Pantelic shot from eight yards out following a neat one-two produced a superb save from the Pat's goalkeeper Ryan, while, on the half-hour, Andrej Voronin's set-piece found Kacar alone on the edge of the area but his shot fizzed just wide of the far post.
Pat's were starved of opportunities before the break, though they always tried to play the ball on the deck. They came close on two occasions, once from a Fahey free-kick and earlier when Dempsey almost capitalised on a mix-up between centre back Kaka and his goalkeeper.
Hertha came out strongly in the second half and within a minute of the restart Cicero forced Ryan into a good low save with a 20 yard effort, but the breakthrough soon came when Pat's failed to clear their lines from a Berlin corner.
Friedich's original shot hit Marko Pantelic, before Voronin's follow up had Ryan diving to punch the ball away. The ball dropped to Nicu who, with Ryan out of position, lobbed it calmly into the far corner from the edge of the area.
Pat's responded well, however, set about securing an equaliser. Another good Fahey set-piece found Harris on the edge of the six-yard area but his clever knock-down across the face of goal found neither Mark Quigley or Gary O'Neill and was hooked out for a corner.
At the other end Pantelic's movement caused Pat's all kinds of problems and it was his one-two with Voronin that was at the heart of Hertha's second. The Ukrainian striker picked the ball up in midfield and his neat one two with Pantelic saw him drive into the box.
The former Bayer Leverkusen and Liverpool forward saw his shot blocked by Jason Gavin, but the ball fell kindly for Cicero who slotted past Ryan from six yards to kill off Pat's.
McDonnell and his men have their work cut out will take enough from their performance in Berlin to know that hope remains with a home leg, of sorts, to come.
Hertha Berlin:Drobny, Kaka, Friedrich, Cicero, Dardai, Pantelic, Voronin, Stein, Simunic, Piszczek, Kacar. Subs: Gang, Von Bergen, Chahed, Domovchiyski, Nicu, Lustenberger.
St Patrick's Athletic:Barry Ryan, Byrne, Lynch, Kirby, Fahey, O'Neill, Quigley, Harris, Dempsey, Gavin, Guy. Subs: Friesz, Bialek, Glenn Fitzpatrick, Bobby Ryan, O'Cearuill, O'Brien, Rogers.
Referee:Tomasz Mikulski (Poland)
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