Uefa Europa Conference League third qualifying round, second leg
Larne 0 FK Balkani 1 (Aggregate: 1-1; Larne won 4-1 on penalties)
LARNE are through to the play-offs of the Uefa Europa Conference League to face Dinamo Minsk after Chris Gallagher and Rohan Ferguson were the heroes of their penalty shoot-out victory.
Ferguson saved the first two spot-kicks, while Gallagher scored the winner from the spot, to record 4-1 win in the shoot-out.
In 120 minutes, Ballkani had won 1-0 to cancel out Larne’s slender win last week and Larne will now prepare to travel to Belarus next week.
The opening exchanges were relatively quiet with Larne settling into the game well, having shots outside the box from midfielders Chris Gallagher and Joe Thomson which ended up well over the crossbar.
The first real opportunity came for Larne with 22 minutes on the clock, after some impressive link-up from the front two. Matty Lusty fed the ball into Andy Ryan’s path and the Scotsman wriggled his way into a yard of space and stung the palms of Enea Kolici.
Ballkani’s first opportunity arrived nine minutes later. After a surging run down the right flank by full-back Geraib Smajli, his cross was chested down by Sunday Adetunji into the path of Walid Hamidi, whose low effort was well kept out by Ferguson.
Two minutes before half-time Ballkani drew level on aggregate in what were fairly unfortunate circumstances for the home side. The ball broke across the edge of the box with Larne skipper Cian Bolger clipping the heels of forward Hamidi, who was on the defender’s blindside.
Referee Robertas Valikonis immediately pointed to the spot and Hamidi dusted himself down to fire the resulting penalty into the top-right corner giving Ferguson with no chance.
The visitors almost forged ahead on aggregate straight away, but Adetunji’s looping effort was gathered by Ferguson at full stretch.
Undeterred, Larne began the second half brightly and could have retaken the lead just three minutes in. However, Dylan Sloan’s low drive from an acute angle was kept out by Kolici.
The goalkeeper was called into action just before the break when Lusty got on the end of an Ives knockdown, with his half-volley from the edge of the box being palmed away by Kolici.
Ballkani were far from out of it, however, and Adetunji, who was back from suspension, brought a tidy save out of Ferguson on 65 minutes before Marsel Ismaljlgeci had a shot deflected narrowly wide.
With no further goals, the game ticked into extra-time, with substitute Bleart Tolaj firing a whisker wide at one end and Paul O’Neill’s header ending up on the roof of the net at the other before heading into the dramatic shoot-out.
Larne will now face the Lincoln Red Imps in the play-off round and are just two games away from the Conference League group stages.
After the penalty shoot-out victory, ugly scenes descended on Inver Park with Ballkani players emptying the bench and confronting the referees and Larne players and staff.
However, most of the home players celebrated with the Inver Park faithful after a victory that put them one round away from Irish League history.
