In the Uefa Conference League third qualifying round second leg, St Patrick’s Athletic secured a 1-0 victory against Sabah, thanks to a 48-minute own goal from Dashdamirov. The victory sealed St Patrick’s Athletic’s advancement to the main path playoff round with a 2-0 aggregate win. The match was held at the Alinja Stadium in Baku.
Stephen Kenny, St Patrick’s Athletic manager, who had previously guided Dundalk to the Uefa Europa League group stages, now aspires to take his current team to the league phase of the Conference League. Their next opponents will be either Istanbul Başakşehir from Turkey or Georgia’s Iberia 1999, who later this evening will duel in a second leg clash, with the Turkish side already leading with a 1-0 advantage from their initial match.
St Patrick’s Athletic managed to enter the confident second leg against the Azerbaijan Premier League team due to Romal Palmer’s 35th-minute goal at Richmond Park the week before. While there were numerous changes to the Saints squad in their draw match with Galway United in the SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division the previous Sunday, the only modification in the starting lineup compared to the first leg was the substitution of rising talent Mason Melia for Aidan Keena.
As the hosts and the team needing to overturn a slim deficit, it came as no astonishment when Sabah promptly exerted pressure within the Saints’ half. Joseph Anang, the St Pat’s goalie, had several unstable instances during the initial moments before he managed to save a long-range shot from Jesse Sekidika at the 17th minute.
After Pavol Safranko missed a shot at the goal, in a surprising turn of events, Pat’s found themselves at an upper hand at the 27th minute of the match. They had previously benefitted from an advantage in Inchicore when Ivan Lepinjica was shown the red card in the second half’s early onset. A similar incident occurred when Soufiane Chakla was sent off the field for a foul on Palmer. Chakla’s removal greatly relieved the pressure on the side of the Saints. Despite not increasing their aggregate lead before halftime, Pat’s found themselves in a dominant position to move forward once the game recommenced.
The second half saw Sabah’s Joy-Lance Mickels put up a strong fight, attempting to unnerv Pat’s goalie Anang with a long shot. However, with a goal scored within the first three minutes into the second half, the men from Inchicore were confident about their position in advancing to the following round of play. It remained uncertain how much of contact Zachary Elbouzedi made with Jake Mulraney’s serve before Rahman Dashdamirov inadvertently headed towards his own goal. The crucial point from the Saints’ viewpoint was the ball finding its way into the back of the opposition’s net due to Sabah’s replacement member’s intervention.
This scenario placed the Saints on the brink of advancing to the next level in the tournament. In the game’s last quarter, Palmer was inches away from doubling their score for the evening. Furthermore, substitute Kian Leavy forced Sabah’s goalkeeper Yusif Imanov to make an impressive save in the final moments. Sabah’s inability to pose a potent threat in the final third, however, allowed Pat’s to comfortably advance to the play-off round.
The Sabah team consisted of Imanov, Seydiyev, Chakla, Irazabal, Letic, Khaibulaev (replaced by Dashdamirov at 30 mins), Jamalov (replaced by Nuriiev at 78 mins), Parris (replaced by Alaskarov at 58 mins), Sekidika (replaced by Seyidov at 78 mins), Mickels and Safranko (replaced by Aliyev at 58 mins).
The team line-up for St Patrick’s Athletic included Anang, Sjoberg, Redmond, Grivosti and Breslin. Forrester was replaced by Bolger at the 73-minute mark, while Palmer made way for Kazeem at 90 minutes. Lennon held his own, as Elbouzedi was swapped for McClelland and Melia was taken off for Keena, both at 90 minutes. Mulraney lasted till the 78th minute before Leavy came on. The match was officiated by M Birsan from Romania.