Valletta bowed out of the Champions League today after going down 1-0 to FK Ekranas at the Aukstaitija Stadium.
A 3-2 home upset at the Hibs Stadium last week left Valletta with a mountain to climb and the mountain got higher within five minutes of today's game when Ignas Dedura scored the only goal for the hosts, a goal which was sufficient to make Valletta's deficit too wide to bridge.
Ekranas progress to the third qualifying round 4-2 on aggregate.
Ekranas's goal came from a free-kick. Ramunas Raduvicius's inswinger was met by Dedura who headed home past goalkeeper Andrew Hogg.
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 arrived on 22 minutes when 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.
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.
At the other end, 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 shot.
Valletta 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 five minutes from time when Falzon's cross eluded the Ekranas defence but Mifsud dallied before firing the ball into the side-netting.
In time added on, Valletta again came close to an equaliser when Barbosa's thumping drive was pushed to a corner by Zubas. From the flag-kick, taken by Denni, Azzopardi's shot finished over.