On Thursday evening, F91 Dudelange hosted UCD from Dublin, Ireland, at the Stade Jos Nosbaum in the south-west of the Grand Duchy in the 1st round 2nd leg of their Europa League qualifying tie; with UCD winning the first leg 1-0 in Dublin last week, they go through on the away goal rule at the expense of their Luxembourg opponents.
The difference in this often unexciting match was a headed goal by UCD's 19 year-old Ryan Swan which ensured the home side needed to score three times to progress; Swan also scored the goal in the first leg match. When UCD's Sean Coyne was sent off on the half-hour mark, the Luxembourgish team believed they could win the match and succeeded in scoring twice, but the third eluded them due to a tenacious defensive display by the visitors in the second half, the first 45 minutes finely balanced at 2-1 on the night, thanks mainly to an inspired Niall Corbet in the visitors' goal.
UCD earned €210k for winning the tie and will meet Slovan Bratislava of Slovakia in the second round next week.
F91 Dudelange: Jonathan Joubert; Clayton Da Sousa (Sanel Ibrahimovic 65), Tom Schnell, Jerry Prempeh, Romain Ney; Kevin Nakache; Sofian Benzouien (Gregory Adler 71), Joel Pedro, Stelvio Rosa Cruz, Daniel Da Mota (Alexanfre Lauriente 76); David Turpel.
UCD: Niall Corbet; Mark Langtry, Michael Leahy (Adam Harney 79), Tomas Boyle, Sean Coyne; Gary O’Neill; Chris Mulhall, Robbie Benson, Dylan Watts (Maxim Kouogun, 31), Jamie Doyle; Ryan Swan (Samir Belhout 67).
Referee: Rahim Hasanov (Azerbaijan).
