Our Wee Country

Linfield defeated by a pub team in Faroe Islands tonight and Larne losing 3-0 at home (Ballymena). All goals in a 10 minute spell in first half.

Quote from: Ernie on July 31, 2025, 11:13:24 pm

Dungannon out. Lost 3-0 after extra tine at Solitude having won away leg 1-0.

Aye, lost a player sent off on 44 mins, held out 0-0 until 79 mins, meaning game went to ET, where Vaduz scored in injury time of the 1st half (105+3), before rubbing salt in with their third in injury time of the 2nd half (120+1).

Fierce amount of red cards for our teams this season in Europe, which presumably cost C'ville and Swifts (esp) dearly.

For the third goal Dungannon had all men up attacking and Valuz had a break. The Dungannon goalkeeper missed a tackle on the half way line and Valuz player had an easy shot for the goal.

Linfield through tonight with an easy 2-0 win at home.
Larne through after penalty shoot out. Drew 1-1 at home.
Dungannon out. Lost 3-0 after extra tine at Solitude having won away leg 1-0.

Cliftonville out of Europe. Is this one of the worst results by an Irish League club in Europe?

No, last time the Glens were in Europe under Warren feeney we drew 2.2 in Malta and then, after we got a last second equalizier, got beaten on penalties at the Oval by a team that would struggle to finish in the top half of the IL and who only had 1 shot all night from which they scored.

In addition to the earlier points made I think IL teams struggle (due to Brexit Regulations on football Work permits), by not being able to get South American/African players in their squads.  All the non-N.I players that IL teams can get in are lower-league Scottish/English rejects who are by their very nature technically poor. The Latvian team that hammered Larne last year had a Brazilian player in the team who they sold later that season to a French club for over £1 million - I would guess that his wage when he played for the Latvian team would not have been unaffordable to the top, full-time teams in the IL - but IL teams are effectively restricted to buying British players.  At the start of last season we had a Ghanaian international/ex-Serie A player who had played in the World Cup, but we had to let him go after 1 friendly because he couldn't get a work permit to play in N.I

When playing at home to a team from Gibraltar, it shouldn't matter how harsh the ref is..............