Following last week's 2-1 win in Dudelange, the F91 Diddeleng team from the Grand Duchy earned a 3-2 win over St Patrick's Athletic in Richmond Park in Dublin yesterday evening, Thursday 20 July 2023, in the UEFA Europa Conference League, first qualifying round, second leg match.
Oege-Sietse van Lingen scored a memorable hat-trick in the win that puts the Luxembourgers through to the second round of European football.
Refereed by Latvia's Edgars Maļcevs, the Luxembourgers caused an upset over the Irish side which had done well in last year's competition.
In the eighth minute, Samir Hadji attacked down the right wing and found Van Lingen whose shot went in off the crossbar. The visitors could have been two goals up six minutes later, only for the ball to be cleared off the line from a header by Hadji. On 20 minutes, the home side survived another scare following a goalmouth scramble.
But it was the home side who scored next, with a calamitous own-goal when Desprez's clearing header hit the bar and was adjudged to have crossed the line after it hit a teammate. HT 1-1.
St Patrick's Athletic made a couple of changes at half-time as the needed to win to proceed to the next round. And Murphy put the home team ahead on the hour mark. However, it was the visitors who scored next with Van Lingen finishing off a break after the home team left themselves exposed at the back.
With two minutes left on the clock, F91 Diddeleng were reduced to ten men after Ismael Sibide was dismissed for a second yellow card.
With seven minutes of added time, this was enough for Van Lingen to secure his hat-trick.
The third qualifying round draw of the 2023/24 Europa Conference League takes place on Monday 24 July, where F91 Diddeleng will learn their next opponents. In the second qualifying round next week, Hesperange Swift are away to TNS (Wales) on Tuesday 25 July and Differdange will be playing on Thursday 27 July.
FT: 2-3 (3-5 on aggregate).
St Patrick's Athletic: Lyness; Brockbank (Norman 46); Curtis; McGrath (McCormack 87); Breslin; Forrester; Lennon; Thijs Timmermans (Murphy 46); Mulraney; Carty (Lonergan 80); M Doyle (E Doyle 68).
F91 Diddeleng: Desprez; Delorge; Sibide; Decker; Ouassiero (Moussaki 79); Agovic (Bojic 79); Bruno Frere; Kuete (Diouf 87); Van Lingen; Roemer (Schaus 90); Hadji.
Referee: Edgars Majcevs (Latvia).