Cliftonville 2 Shamrock Rovers 0 (agg 2-2; Rovers win 3-1 on penalties):SHAMROCK ROVERS squeezed into the semi-finals by the skin of their teeth at Solitude last night.
Defeated 2-0 on the night, it took penalty kicks to see them through against a Cliftonville side which had shocked the visitors with a gallant display throughout the previous two hours of action.
Rovers’ Swedish goalkeeper Oscar Jansson could do nothing to stop Cliftonville breaking the deadlock on the stroke of half-time when Martin Donnelly’s cross was nodded home by former Rovers midfielder Barry Johnston.
Rovers spurned chances in the second half and were made to pay with a late Joe Gormley header.
Jansson proved the hero for the defending champions in the shoot-out, saving from Ciaran Caldwell and Donnelly to put Rovers through.
CLIFTONVILLE: Brown, Johnston, Holland, Caldwell, C Scannell (Boyce, 79) Donnelly, Smyth (Gormley, 74), O'Carroll, Seydak, Catney (Garrett, 32) , McVeigh.
SHAMROCK ROVERS:Jansson, Gannon, Powell, Hawkins, Gartland, Dennehy, O'Neill (Twigg, 85), McCormack (Rice 76), Turner, Kavanagh (Finn, 56), Brennan.
Referee: M Smyth (Belfast).
