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First half goals down Shels
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First half goals down Shels
September 30, 2004
Lille OSC 2-0 Shelbourne
Lille win 4-2 on aggregate
Shelbourne’s European journey came to an end at the Stade Metropole in Lille this evening, when two goals in the first half hour sent the French side through to the inaugural Uefa Cup group stages at the expense of the Irish champions.
Reds manager Pat Fenlon, who was once again compulsorily absent from the dug-out after his indiscretions in Spain in August, opted as expected for a cautious line-up, although it was the specific roles given to his midfield personnel that raised a few eyebrows.
Stuart Byrne, who gained a fearsome reputation for man-marking through the Champions League ties against Hajduk Split and Deportivo La Coruna, missed the first leg through suspension, and was expected to reprise his stopper role.
However, it was Jim Crawford who was handed the task of shadowing Milenko Acimovic, the Slovenian playmaker, who himself was returning to the Lille side after missing the Lansdowne Road tie with an injury, with Byrne partnering Alan Moore ahead of him in central midfield.
Unfortunately for Crawford, it was former Spurs man Acimovic who fired the all-important first goal after 18 minutes.
The Shels midfielder sustained an injury in midfield and, with his marker absent, Acimovic was released on the left, making the most of the space afforded him to pass the ball to the net outside the reach of Steve Williams.
It was a deserved lead for the home side, who had threatened from virtually the first minute. Acimovic went close with two free kicks and striker Matt Moussilou caused all manner of problems with his raw pace. Indeed, Lille had the ball in the net after two minutes but the ball had just crossed the end-line before Moussilou’s cutback.
Eight minutes after the deadlock was broken, and Lille made it 2-0. Again it was Moussilou who did the damage, but referee Emil Bozinovski deserves credit for his part in the build-up.
The Macedonian official waved play on after a definite foul on a Lille player in midfield, and Moussilou sprinted onto the loose ball, hurdling the challenge of Dave Crawley before hammering past Williams from 20 yards, albeit with the aid of a slight deflection off Jamie Harris’s outstretched leg.
Shels failed to create anything at the other end, with Jason Byrne isolated and Wes Hoolahan, Ollie Cahill and Alan Moore denied the space required to find the fluency of previous rounds.
LIlle had several excellent openings at the beginning of the second half, but spurned them all – Moussilou rounding Williams before stroking his shot off the post, while Christophe Landrin saw his long-range left-foot drive whiz past the post with Williams a mere spectator.
The centre of the Shels defence, Harris and Dave Rogers, was more porous than in any of their previous seven games, and it took exceptional interceptions from full backs Owen Heary and Dave Crawley to keep the home side at bay.
If Shels were not exactly still in the game at 2-0 down, they at least preserved plenty of dignity. However, home keeper Tony Sylva, the Senegal international, did not have to make a single save of note until Dave Crawley’s last-minute free kick, a statistic that says much of Shelbourne’s painful attacking impotency on the night.
Nevertheless, it has been a long road well travelled by Shels this summer, and the experience garnered will go a long way towards consolidating their place as the pre-eminent side in the eircom League. They will hope the summer of 2004 doesn’t prove to be the high-water mark in the club’s European story.
Lille OSC (4-4-1-1): Sylva – Angbwa, Rafael, Tavlaridis, Tafforeau – Landrin, Bodmer (Miralas, 90), Makoun, Audel – Acimovic (Chalme, 84) – Moussilou (Brunel, 66).
Shelbourne (4-1-4-1): Williams – Heary, Harris, Rogers, Crawley – Crawford – Hoolahan (McCarthy, 80), S. Byrne (Cawley, 87), Moore (Fitzpatrick, 65), Cahill – J. Byrne.
Referee: Emil Bozinovski (Macedonia).
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