Report: Ryan McMullen

The hosts come out on top on a disappointing night for the Hoops in Hungary

Ahead of the game in Budapest, Stephen Bradley made 4 changes from Sunday’s defeat at Oriel Park, Markus Poom and Liam Burt, making his first start for Rovers, came into the team for Dylan Watts and Graham Burke as well as Richie Towell who replaced Aaron Greene. Johnny Kenny also started with Rory Gaffney unavailable due to injury.

The Hoops started off very energetically winning multiple corners and creating some half chances within the first 10 minutes.

Although it was Ferencváros who took the lead in the 16th minute when David Siger’s shot from the edge of the box took a deflection off Hoops defender Roberto Lopes before beating Alan Mannus in the Rovers goal.

Following the goal, Ferencváros enjoyed most of the possession and put the Rovers defence under constant pressure.

Ferencváros doubled their lead 32 minutes in when Cristian Ramirez hit a long-range shot that went straight for the bottom left corner of the goal just going past Mannus.

The break came and it was the hosts who were going in with the advantage after a very dominant first-half performance.

Just after the break, another goal came for Ferencváros when Adama Traore hit home in front of the home fans to make it 3-0.

Ferencváros added another with 16 minutes remaining when Sean Kavanagh was beaten to a loose ball by Adama Traore before squaring to Barbaras Varys who found the back of the net to make it 4-0.

Johnny Kenny led the line tirelessly all evening and almost had the goal his play deserved but his effort smacked off the crossbar.

The Hoops now face a mountain to climb in next week’s return leg, but Stephen Bradley’s men will look to regroup and put on a positive performance back home in Tallaght, with kick off set for 8pm next Thursday 3 August.

Ferencváros: Dibusz, Makreckis, Mmaee, Cisse, Ramirez, Siger (Esiti 77’), Abu Fani, Zachariassen (Lisztes 71’), Marquinhos (Romdhane 71’), B Varga (Katona 88’), Traore (Kwabena 77’).

Ferencváros unused substitutes: A Varga, Knoester, Gojak, Civic, Abena, Paszka, Barath.

Shamrock Rovers: Mannus, Cleary, Lopes, Grace, Hoare, O’Neill, Poom, Burt (Razi 79’), Kavanagh, Towell (Finn 49’), Kenny (Greene 79’).

Shamrock Rovers unused substitutes: Gannon, Watts, Burke, Power, Pohls, Leitis, Cruise, Noonan.