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Friday, 23 July 2010

Sporting Fingal Lose Out to Maritimo

Sporting Fingal's first foray into Europe ended with defeat at the first hurdle going out to Portuguese side CS Maritimo at Dalymount Park.
Fingal went into the game, trailing by 3-2, meaning a 1-0 victory over Maritimo would see the Dubliners through.
However, the home side got off to a slow start with Maritimo displaying their attacking threat with only half a minute gone. 
Baba played in striker Cherrad, who rounded Clarke in the Fingal goal, but he could only fire a tame shot that a sliding Lorcan Fitgerald stopped.
Clarke pulled off two full length saves from long range Martimo shots within the first six minutes with Fingal looking sluggish early on.
The visitors' forays forward became less frequent as the half wore on but their ability to maintain possession for long periods meant the hosts could never get a foothold on the game.
Fingal's hopes suffered a major blow on 20 minutes when Shaun Maher took down Danilo in the Fingal area. The Maltese referee pointed to the spot and Alonso made no mistake and slotted home.
On the rare moments when Sporting were able to create an opening they were reduced to shooting from distance. Conan Byrne sent his first effort on goal high and wide with fifty five minutes gone.
Sporting then thought they had equalised on the hour mark but Ronan Finn's effort was waved away as offside.
Five minutes later Shane McFaul was brought off and Eamon Zayed introduced, with Liam Buckley switching the formation from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2.
Having proven himself with spectacular saves in the games opening exchanges, Brendan Clarke was beaten at his near post on 67 minutes. Marquinho shot from outside the box and somehow sneaking his shot past Clarke.
With the game looking to have been settled and the crowd beginning to head for the exits, Zayed tapped home a Conan Byrne cross to make it 5-3 on aggregate. 
A minute later and Pecanha pulled off a brilliant close range save to deny Kirby grabbing an equaliser.
Fingal were now piling men forward which left them exposed at the back. On 84 minutes Maritimo could have punished this but substitute Kanu, having beaten the offside trap and rounded Brendan Clarke somehow managed to send his shot inches wide.
Kanu was more clinical five minutes later as Maritimo again caught Fingal on the break the substitute grabbing his sides third.
Zayed made it 3 -2 with a minute of normal time to go, but it was little more than a consolation for the Dublin outfit.

Sporting Fingal: B Clarke; L Fitzgerald, K Browne, S Maher, G O'Brien; C Byrne, R Finn, A Kirby, S McFaul (Zayed 64'), S Williams; G Crowe
CS Maritimo: Pecanha; Ricardo Esteves, Joao Guilherme, Robson, Alonso; Marquinho (Amarai 72'), Danilo, Sousa, Tcho (Kanu 81'); Baba, Cherrad (Fidelis 90') 



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