By Denis Hurley
Rosenborg 3 Cork City 0 (Rosenborg win 5-0 on aggregate): Cork City’s European campaign came to an end as they were emphatically seen off by Rosenborg at Lerkendal Stadion in Trondheim on Thursday night.
Trailing 2-0 since last Thursday’s third qualifying round first leg, City fell further behind as Besim Serbecic and Alexander Søderlund struck for Rosenborg goals to effectively end the tie as a contest.
Having begun brightly, City found things similar to the first leg, with good territory not converted into goals, Jimmy Keohane and Karl Sheppard closest with shots saved by André Hansen.
Rosenborg hit the front in the 26th minute as Mike Jensen’s cross was parried by Mark McNulty as far as Serbecic, who finished well. The lead was doubled eight minutes later when the outstanding Anders Trondsen picked up possession on the left and drove towards the area before gifting Søderlund with a tap-in.
It remained 2-0 at half-time and though Kieran Sadlier hit the post with a City free kick, Rosenborg added a third with Trondsen got the goal his performance merited following Søderlund’s lay-off.
They could have added more but the situation didn’t get worse for City. They persisted in their efforts to find a goal but it remained elusive, coming closest on 70 minutes as Garry Buckley’s shot hit the crossbar and Jimmy Keohane’s follow-up was saved by Hansen.
ROSENBORG: Hansen; Hedenstad (Reitan 74), Serbecic, Reginiussen, Meling; Lundemo, Trondsen (Konradsen 60); Levi (Helland 60), Jensen, Bendtner; Søderlund.
CORK CITY: McNulty; Beattie, Delaney, McLoughlin, Griffin; McCormack, Morrissey (McNamee half-time); Keohane, Buckley (Dunleavy 75), Sadlier; Sheppard (Coughlan 72).
Referee: MK Kristoffersen (Denmark).
[h2]Elsewhere[/h2]
Celtic will travel to Lithuania next week after Suduva sealed a Europa League play-off against the Scottish champions.
Suduva held out for a goalless home draw against Latvian side Spartaks Jurmala to clinch a 1-0 aggregate win.
Defeat by AEK Athens earlier this saw Celtic drop out of the Champions League reckoning.
Steven Gerrard's Rangers have beaten Maribor 3-1 on aggregate in their Europa League third qualifying round tie after a 0-0 second-leg draw in Slovenia.
The Gers held their nerve in Maribor as Allan McGregor's stoppage-time penalty save sealed the 0-0 draw which saw Gerrard's men into the Europa League play-offs.
Hibernian are out of the competition after a 3-0 defeat to Molde in the second leg of their third qualifying round tie resulted in a 3-0 aggregate loss.
