Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
LINFIELD GET FLORED AT WINDSOR
0 Floriana 1 Europaleaguequalifier
LINFIELD’S Europa League dream last night ended in a whimper at Windsor Park.
Having been denied a group stage place last season when losing out to Azerbaijan side Qarabag, the Blues failed to reach the same level of performance against Maltese champions Floriana.
To compound a night of misery, the Blues had to play the final 16 minutes with 10 men after defender Ross Larkin was sent off.
Floriana took the lead after only nine minutes – a goal from Matias Nicholas Garcia that rocked the home team to its foundations.
It could have been prevented. Tiago Adan Fonseca was allowed time and space to on the edge of the box and when he picked out Garcia, his low drive totally deceived keeper Chris Johns.
Linfield huffed and puffed, but never looked capable of breaking down a resolute Floriana backline.
In fact, they had to wait until the last minute of the first half to test goalkeeper Ini Etim Atkpan, who managed to beat away a stinging drive from Navid Nesseri following a trademark surging dash through the middle by skipper Jamie Mulgrew.
The Blues missed a great chance to level seconds later when defender Ethan Boyle headed wide following a pinpoint corner kick from Niall Quinn.
The Blues roared out of the traps after the break, with Lavery forcing Atkpan into a low save within seconds.
Two minutes later Lavery again caused problems which resulted in Stephen Fallon’s shot being parried by Atkpan, but Bastien Hery blasted wide of an open goal.