Cork City ... 0 Red Star Belgrade ... 1On their previous two visits to Ireland Red Star Belgrade had averaged four goals without reply so on that level at least Cork City's narrow defeat last night at Turner's Cross, where they fought hard but ultimately lost out due to a Denis Behan own goal scored late in the first half, looks like progress.
Having certainly emerged with their pride intact on this occasion, however, Damien Richardson's side must now do what neither Dundalk nor Sligo Rovers could and score in Belgrade if they are to have any chance of securing a place in the third round of these Champions League qualifiers.
On the strength of this encounter it looks a tall order for while Red Star were not overwhelmingly impressive they still turned in the sort of performance that most managers would reflect upon with quiet satisfaction on the journey home from a European away tie.
Richardson, as you would expect, remained upbeat afterwards, hailing what he said was a "terrific performance," one, he said, that proved City could "compete at this level". When he observed, however, that "if we can score over there then I firmly believe we can surprise a few people". The "if" seemed to hang heavily in the air.
City, however, can certainly take some encouragement from the way in which, without four of the team's best players, they performed here. It was lively stuff from the outset with City showing a willingness to mix it physically with strong opponents even if they were second best early on in terms of movement and passing. Red Star's composure on the ball made life difficult for the hosts who, in something of a reversal of normal European routine, had to patiently fall back in numbers as the visitors edged forward and prodded for defensive weaknesses.
Through the opening half an hour, though, the two defences were dominant and neither side managed a serious crack at goal.
Remarkably, City's skipper Dan Murray dominated Red Star gigantic international striker Nikola Zigic in the air - bad news for the striker who was the most likely explanation for the presence of Harry Redknapp and Sam Allardyce in the stand. Alan Bennett, meanwhile, mopped up almost every ball played low into Michael Devine's area.
Overall, though, it was the home side who found themselves on the back foot during the early exchanges with Admir Softic and Colin O'Brien having to work very hard in central midfield to prevent the visitors from playing the bulk of the contest well inside the home side's half .
Having survived that rocky opening spell City did gradually get to grips with their task. At times they pushed the ball around well, most notably in the 25th minute when Bennett, Neale Fenn, Neal Horgan and Cillian Lordan were all involved in an impressive build-up that led to a s Behan shot being blocked down on the edge of the area.
In attack, though, the home side struggled to make any sort of serious impact. Fenn appears to thrive at this level with the former Spurs striker repeatedly looking more at home on a European stage than he does when having to engage in the rough and tumble of the league, but his less polished game failed to trouble defenders of this quality.
Red Star coach Dusan Bajevic had said on Tuesday that he wanted to take control of the tie in this leg and, having effectively started with two players supporting Zigic in attack, it would have been interesting just how eagerly he would have had his men chase an away goal if one hadn't tumbled their way shortly before half-time.
In fact, just about nine minutes of the first period remained when the Serbs took the lead but the breakthrough had a considerable whiff of good fortune about it. Billy Woods was perhaps a little over cautious to concede Red Star's first corner of the game but the real problems started when Marko Perovic floated the ball in from the right and Boko Jankovic failed to make contact with a header. The miss might have been good news for the southerners had the ball not flown into the path of Behan who unwittingly turned it past Devine from eight yards out.
Bajevic's men now had the advantage they had come looking for and it was hard to see them squandering it easily. City's approach work suggested a good deal more urgency from the moment they got the second half under way but they had to strike a delicate balance between their pursuit of an equaliser and their need to avoid being caught on the break.
In the 45 minutes that followed they could only be said to have come close to achieving their first objective once, when Devine threw the ball out quickly to Lordan and the right-sided midfielder played a fine cross-field ball for Roy O'Donovan who got the better of his marker before curling his shot just wide of the right hand angle. For what it is worth, they never actually looked like conceding again with City's goalkeeper not required to make a save of note.
CORK CITY: Devine; Horgan, Bennett, Murray, Woods; Cillian Lordan (B O'Callaghan, 85 mins), O'Brien, Softic, O'Donovan; Fenn, Behan (McCarthy, 84 mins).
RED STAR BELGRADE: Randelovic; Pantic (Djokic, 68 mins), Bisevac, Joksimovic, Perovic; Basta, Kovacevic, Milovanovic; Jankovic (Milijas, 60 mins), Zigic,Georgiev.
Referee: T Mikulski (Poland).
