Shamrock Rovers<\/a> have left themselves with serious work to do at Tallaght Stadium next week as they failed to make good periods of possession pay, sloppiness and indiscipline contriving to hand Floriana this first leg victory in Malta.<\/p>\nTwo yellow cards inside a minute midway through the second half saw midfielder Matt Healy sent off after Enda Stevens\u2019 concession off a free-kick had led to Floriana\u2019s opening goal at the end of the first.<\/p>\n
With Rovers stretched late on in the sapping heat on the artificial surface at the Centenary Stadium in Ta\u2019Qali, the record 27-times Maltese champions punished them further with Gambian striker Mustapha Jan adding their second goal.<\/p>\n
With four changes from their win at Sligo Rovers last Friday, including the technical threat of Jack Byrne and Graham Burke back in from the start, Rovers started positively.<\/p>\n
An early Adam Brennan cross worried the Floriana defence with Burke seeing another dangerous delivery gathered by Brazilian goalkeeper Guilherme Cioletti.<\/p>\n
Michael Noonan then fluffed Rovers\u2019 first real chance on 13 minutes, outjumping Brazilian defender Kuaun to head over after Burke released Dylan Watts on the left to cross.<\/p>\n
Floriana played their way into the game, Robert Muri\u0107 working Ed McGinty for the first time on 22 minutes, the Hoops keeper turning the shot out for a corner.<\/p>\n
Regaining the initiative, Rovers\u2019 teenage striker Noonan had a shot blocked by Owen Spiteri after Byrne\u2019s cross deflected into his path.<\/p>\n
Maintaining the pressure on the home goal, Dylan Watts\u2019 crisp volley was turned out for Rovers\u2019 fifth corner of the game.<\/p>\n
But their first-half dominance brought no reward as Hoops were sucker-punched in the first minute of stoppage time at the end of the 45.<\/p>\n
Defender Stevens miscontrolled Byrne\u2019s pass before compounding that by pulling down Frederico Varela to concede a free-kick.<\/p>\n
The Argentinian was smartly to his feet to cleverly sweep the free to Muri\u0107 in space on the right. The Croat winger ducked inside Cory O\u2019Sullivan to arc a low drive past McGinty to the corner of the net for a well-taken goal.<\/p>\n
Repeating the pattern of the first half, Rovers began the second on the front foot with Watts planting a diving header from Byrne\u2019s cross straight at Cioletti early on.<\/p>\n
But a minute of madness from Healy greatly damaged Rovers\u2019 comeback cause.<\/p>\n
First the Corkman saw yellow for a pull back on Varela on 57 minutes. Scarcely 60 seconds later, he did something similar on Floriana skipper Dustan Vella to receive a second yellow promptly followed by a red.<\/p>\n
Floriana added to Rovers\u2019 woes when duly making their extra man count on 79 minutes.<\/p>\n
McGinty could merely parry a stinging drive from the impressive Varela. Jan pounced to rifle the ball into the roof of the net.<\/p>\n
Substitute Maleace Asamoah brought Rovers fleeting hope, a surging run ending with his shooting against a post.<\/p>\n
It left Rovers heading home empty-handed, their Champions League progress in some doubt ahead of next Tuesday\u2019s second leg in Dublin 24.<\/p>\n
Floriana: Cioletti; Lonardelli, Spiteri, Kauan, Beerman; Kurtalic, D. Vella (Romano 71); Muric (Gudelj 81), Varela, Dervisagic (N\u2019Dri 66); Jan (Scerri 81).<\/p>\n
Shamrock Rovers: McGinty; Grace, Stevens, C. O\u2019Sullivan; Watts (J. O\u2019Sullivan 63), Healy; Mulraney (O\u2019Regan 63), Byrne, Burke (Asamoah 71), Brennan; M. Noonan (McGovern 71).<\/p>\n
Referee: Benjamin Brand (Germany).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Champions League qualifying first round first leg: Floriana 2 (Muric 45+1, Jah 79) Shamrock Rovers 0 Shamrock Rovers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[15013,61,60,11113,112],"class_list":["post-538694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-champions-league","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-shamrock-rovers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}