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\nRodrigo Freitas opens the scoring for Shelbourne<\/p>\n
Shelbourne put themselves in pole position to advance to the UEFA Conference League third qualifying round after they overcame Estonian side Nomme Kalju 5-2 in the first leg of their second qualifying round tie at Tolka Park.<\/p>\n
After making club history by reaching the Conference League phase last season, Shels put in a great display against Kalju – who had squeezed past Linfield 3-2 on aggregate in the first round – and will have a three-goal advantage ahead of next week’s second leg in Tallinn.<\/p>\n
Goals from Sean Moore, who bagged a brace, as well as Rodrigo Freitas, Ali Coote and substitute Daniel Ring ensured victory as the home side registered five goals for the first time in a European tie.<\/p>\n
The only blots for Shelbourne were sloppy concessions in the 40th and 90th minutes as Enrique Esono scored two for Kalju.<\/p>\n
Shelbourne tore into their opponents from the off and were rewarded by taking the lead after just three minutes as relentless pressure from the Reds forced goalkeeper Henri Perk into a disastrous error, coughing up possession straight to Moore inside the penalty area.<\/p>\n
Moore kept his head sliding a pass across goal for Freitas, who gleefully buried his finish from close range.<\/p>\n
Freitas should have doubled both his tally and Shelbourne’s advantage moments later.<\/p>\n
Released clean through by Daniel Kelly, the Portuguese player looked certain to score but hesitated at the crucial moment, allowing Perk to smother his tame effort with his legs.<\/p>\n
\nRodrigo Freitas opens the scoring for Shelbourne<\/p>\n
But the reprieve was only temporary as Shelbourne doubled their lead in the 21st minute as Evan Caffrey’s incisive pass found Moore inside the area and he steered a cool left-footed finish beyond Perk<\/p>\n
And four minutes later, the visitors were rocked again as Coote added a third with a finish of real quality, spinning smartly before drilling a low effort into the bottom corner.<\/p>\n
The visitors barely threatened in response. Oleksandr Musolitin tried his luck from distance but Edward Beach was equal to the effort, while the Shelbourne goalkeeper also saved a speculative strike from first-half substitute Tiago Baptista.<\/p>\n
The home side continued to push for more and came within inches of a fourth on 39 minutes as Milan Mbeng unleashed a fierce drive that cannoned back off the post, with Perk perhaps getting the slightest touch to the effort.<\/p>\n
Yet just when it looked like Shelbourne would reach the interval with a commanding three-goal cushion, Kalju seized upon an unexpected lifeline.<\/p>\n
A dangerous ball over the top appeared to be comfortably covered by Paddy Barrett, but Beach elected to race from his goal in an attempt to intercept and the loose ball broke kindly for Esono, who calmly rolled into the empty net.<\/p>\n
![\"23](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0024bfae-614.jpg\"\/)
\nShelbourne head coach John Russell (c) and his players applaud the home crowd after the game<\/p>\n
Shelbourne nearly restored their three-goal margin before the whistle as Barrett rose highest to meet a corner in stoppage time, only to be denied by a superb save from Perk.<\/p>\n
The second half was less than two minutes old before Shels got a fourth as Kelly\u2019s left-wing cross was met by the head of Moore who, all alone and close in, planted the ball to the net.<\/p>\n
The home side pressed for another with Caffery shooting over with a quarter of an hour to play with the goal at his mercy, and late in the game Ring also had two efforts on target blocked by the Kalju defence.<\/p>\n
Ring was not to be denied a third time though as he kept his composure to slide the ball past Perk with a minute to play after a Shels\u2019 break.<\/p>\n
Kalju did give themselves a bit of a lifeline when Esono headed in their second in added time.<\/p>\n
The eventual winners will face the winners of Ajax and Vojvodina Novi Sad with the Dutch giants winning 4-1 in Serbia in the first leg of their second-round encounter.<\/p>\n
Shelbourne: Edward Beach; James Norris, Kameron Ledwidge (Sam Bone, 81), Paddy Barrett, Milan Mbang; Daniel Kelly, Ali Coote (Kerr McInroy, 65), John Henry Francis (JJ Lunney, 81), Evan Caffrey, Sean Moore (Will Jarvis, 74); Rodrigo Freitas (Daniel Ring, 81).<\/p>\n
Nomme Kalju: Henri Perk; Danyl Mashchenko, Maksim Podholjuzin (Tiago Baptista, 30), Roko Vukusic, Alexandr Nikolajev (Alex Borolintsikov, 58); Rommi Siht, Modou Tembedou, Oleksandr Muslitin, Bogdan Vastsuk (Daniil Sotsugov, 77); Nikita Ivanov (Mihail Orlov, 58), Enrique Esono.<\/p>\n
Referee: Szabolcs Kovacs (Romania).<\/p>\n
Listen to the RT\u00c9 Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shelbourne put themselves in pole position to advance to the UEFA Conference League third qualifying round after they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-564993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564993","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=564993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}