Soccer – European Review:Shamrock Rovers have reached the third qualifying round of the Champions League after a 0-0 draw against Flora Tallinn in Estonia gave them a 1-0 aggregate victory.
Chris Turner’s goal after half an hour in last week’s opening leg proved to be enough for the League of Ireland side to progress into the next round, where they will face current Danish Superliga champions FC Copenhagen over two legs.
Northern Ireland Premier League holders Linfield were eliminated after a 2-0 defeat to Belarusian outfit BATE Borisov.
Linfield travelled to Borisov having drawn the first leg 1-1, but goals from Pavel Nekhaichik and Aleksandr Pavlov in three second half minutes set up a third round clash with FK Ekranas of Lithuania for BATE.
Bangor City faced an uphill challenge to reach the next round after a 3-0 home defeat to HJK Helsinki last week, and their elimination was confirmed after a 10-0 thrashing in Finland.
The Welsh Premier League champions were 2-0 down at half-time after goals from Alexander Ring (37) and Berat Sadik (44).
But they capitulated in the second half and conceded eight more with Erfan Zeneli, Teemu Pukki and Kastriot Kastrati all scoring twice to wrap up an emphatic win and secure a difficult tie against Dinamo Zagreb in the next round.
