Ekranas 1
Dedura 4;
Valletta 0

(Ekranas win 4-2 on aggregate)

An early Ignas Dedura goal spelt an end to Valletta’s ambitions of prolonging their European adventure this season as Ekranas edged the Malta champions 1-0 to progress to the third qualifying round of the 2010-11 UEFA Champions League 4-2 on aggregate.

In his pre-match comments to The Times, Valletta coach Jes-mond Zerafa had warned that had his team fell behind in the second leg, their chances would be all but ended.

His words turned out to be prophetical as Dedura jolted Valletta’s hopes of turning the tie around yesterday following the Lithuanians’ 3-2 win in Malta last week.

The hosts looked more match-fit and did well to administer their advantage and set up a third qualifying round clash against Belarus neighbours Bate Borisov.

Despite their elimination, how-ever, the Citizens can still take some positives from these two matches with Ekranas.

In the end, costly defensive mistakes, particularly in the first leg, sealed their fate.

Zerafa effected two changes to his starting formation.

Dyson Falzon replaced the suspended Roderick Briffa at left back while flank defender Ian Azzopardi was switched to a central role in the rearguard to fill the void left by Jonathan Caruana, who was also serving a one-match ban.

Kevin Sammut was given the job to patrol the left wing.

The Valletta coach kept to his promise of naming a more offensive line-up as he relegated Jamie Pace to the bench with Alfred Effiong forming a three-pronged attack with William Barbosa and Michael Mifsud.

Denni was only fit enough to start on the bench.

Valletta endured a nightmare start as they found themselves a goal behind after only four minutes.

Ekranas won a free-kick on the left and Ramunas Raduvicius’s inswinger was met by Dedura who headed home past goal-keeper Andrew Hogg.

Stung by this setback, the Citizens were still recovering when Ekranas almost doubled their lead.

From another free-kick, Marko Andjelkovic’s delivery found the unmarked Dusan Matovic who hit just wide.

Valletta’s first opportunity at goal arrived on 22 minutes when Nigerian Effiong pounced on some hesitant defending from the hosts to race through only to be blocked as he was about to shoot.

Scoring chances remained few and far in between with the Citizens, despite enjoying most of the possession, struggling to break down their opponents.

Their first real shot at goal arrived on 35 minutes when Ryan Fenech’s dipper was easily dealt with by Emiljus Zubas.

Four minutes from the break, Barbosa sent a dangerous cross in the Ekranas box but no City players were at hand to pounce on the opportunity.

Valletta started to play with more purpose in the second half and on 47 minutes Gilbert Agius tried his luck from the distance but Zubas was well placed to block.

The Citizens were clearly the better team in these early stages and on 53 minutes Fenech’s cross-shot was tipped to a corner by the Ekranas keeper.

Zerafa withdrew Sammut and roped in Denni as he looked to add more flair to his team’s manoeuvres.

The introduction of the Brazilian livewire left a positive effect as Valletta started to put pressure on the Ekranas defence and on 65 minutes Barbosa’s effort forced Zubas into a smart save.

At the other end, Valletta’s Hogg was forced to make his first intervention of the second half on 70 minutes when he dived to his right to block Umeh’s menacing shot.

The visitors kept pushing in search of what would have been a deserved equaliser and nine minutes from time Denni’s piledriver was stopped by Zubas.

The Citizens’ best chance came six minutes from time when Falzon’s cross eluded the Ekranas defence but Mifsud dallied before firing his second attempt into the side-netting.

In time added on, Valletta again came close to cancelling Ekranas’s advantage when Brazilian Bar-bosa’s thumping drive from just outside the box was pushed to a corner by the alert Zubas who was on the right spot to tip the scorching shot over the bar.

From the ensuing flag-kick, taken by Denni, Azzopardi’s shot finished over.

Ekranas
E. Zubas, R. Radavicius, A. Kucys, A. Joksas, I. Dedura, M. Alonso (70 A. Velicka), M. Andjelkovic, U. Umeh (88 J. Moroz), A. Vertelis (83 A. Ribokas), G. Tomkevicius, D. Matovic.

Valletta
A. Hogg, I. Azzopardi, S. Borg, R. Fenech, G. Agius, E. Agius, W. Barbosa, D. Falzon, A. Effiong (67 I. Zammit), K. Sammut (54 Denni), M. Mifsud.

Referee: A. Constantin (Romania FA).

Yellow cards: Sammut, Andjlekovic, Tomkevicius, Matovic, Borg, Joksas, Denni.

Second qualifying round

Second Legs

	1st leg	2nd leg	Agg
BATE Borisov (Belarus) vs Linfield (N. Ireland)	1-1	2-0	3-1
Dudelange (Luxembourg) vs Maribor (Slovenia)	0-2	1-3	1-5
Ekranas (Lithuania) vs Valletta (Malta)	3-2	1-0	4-2
Flora Tallinn (Estonia) vs Shamrock (Ireland)	0-1	0-0	0-1
HB Torshavn (Faroe Islands) vs Malmo (Sweden)	0-2	1-1	1-3
HJK Helsinki (Finland) vs Bangor City (Wales)	3-0	10-0	13-0
Litex Lovech (Bulgaria) vs Mogren (Montenegro)	2-1	3-0	5-1
Neftci (Azerbaijan) vs Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia)	0-3	0-0	0-3
Plzen (Czech Rep.) vs Pyunik (Armenia)	4-0	5-1	9-1
Skendija (Macedonia) vs Partizan (Serbia)	0-4	0-1	0-5
Tobol (Kazakhstan) vs Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia)	0-2	1-1	1-3
Wisla Krakow (Poland) vs Skonto Riga (Latvia)	1-0	2-0	3-0

Playing today
APOEL Nicosia (Cyprus) vs Skenderbeu (Albania) - 2-0
Borac Banja Luka (Bosnia) vs Maccabi Haifa (Israel) - 1-5
Breidablik (Iceland) vs Rosenborg (Norway) - 0-5
Dacia Chisinau (Moldova) vs Zestafoni (Georgia) - 0-3
Videoton (Hungary) vs Sturm Graz (Austria) - 0-2

Third qualifying round: July 26-27 and August 2-3.