Larne bowed out of Champions League at Solitude last night with pride still intact after a battling displace saw the Invermen come back from two goals down to force extra-time.
Already a goal down going into the game they fell 2-0 behind on aggregate before a stirring second half produced goals from Lee Bonis and Joe Thomson time to force an extra 30 minutes.
The Finnish Champions claimed the decisive goal in extra-time and Tiernan Lynch’s men will now face Ballkani of Kosovo in the Europa Conference League.
More to follow…
Larne: Ferguson, Sloan (’76 Thomson), Want, Cosgrove, Donnelly, Millar, Glynn (’76 Westendorf), Gordon (’97 Maguire), Bolger (’35 Farquhar), Ryan (’90 O’Neill), Bonis
Unused subs: Omar, Smith, Dowling, Kearns
HJK Helsinki: Iliev (‘45 Ost), Toivio, Radulovic, Lingman, Tenho, Keskinen (’73 Riski), Raitala, Soiri (‘118 Kouassivi-Benissana), Kanellópoulos (’91 Moller), Olusanya (’57 Atom)
Unused subs: Tanaka, Toivonen, Boamah
Referee: Aristotellis Diamantopoulos
