Sports Direct Premiership sides Larne and Linfield and League of Ireland Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers all crashed out of the Uefa Europa Conference League on Thursday evening.
Linfield faced an uphill battle travelling to Poland to face Pogon Szczecin as they trailed 5-2 on aggregate following last week’s defeat at Windsor Park.
The Blues did make the brighter start, however, when skipper Jamie Mulgrew rifled home from outside the box after 16 minutes.
Linfield carried that advantage into the break, but the home side levelled things up four minutes after the turnaround through Efthymis Koulouris.
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Kyle McLean briefly put the visitors ahead once again, but Linus Wahlqvist replied for Pogon Szczecin to level things up and stretch their aggregate lead to three.
Linfield needed three goals to at least draw level, but it was Pogon Szczecin who struck next with substitute Vahan Bichakhchyan guaranteeing their place in the next round.
Larne also trailed Ballkani following the first leg and, despite hitting the net in their home tie at Solitude they went down 4-0 on the night and 7-1 on aggregate.
Tiernan Lynch’s men were 3-0 down by the 46th minute, before Lee Bonis pulled one back from the penalty spot,
But it wasn’t enough to ignite a revival and Ballkani comfortably progressed to the next round.
A 2-2 draw wasn’t enough for Dundalk to make it through to the next round as they lost out to KA Akureyri on an aggregate score of 5-3.
John Martin and Gregory Sloggett both rattled the net for Stephen O’Donnell’s side, but their goals were matched by the opposition.
Shamrock Rovers suffered a 2-0 defeat on home turf against Ferencvaros, who reached the next round on the back of a 6-0 aggregate win.
