LARNE will have it all to do in next week’s second leg after losing 3-0 to Santa Clara at the Ballymena Showgrounds on Thursday night.
The visitors took a commanding lead into half-time thanks to a blistering nine-minute period, midway through the first half.
Wendel Silva opened the scoring on 26 minutes, before Gabriel Silva scored two goals in as many minutes to ensure the Portuguese side have a comfortable advantage in the second leg in the Azores next week.
Larne: Ferguson, Donnelly, Gallagher, McKendry (’39 Ridley), Randall (’73 Moore), O’Connor (’73 Magee), Graham (’78 Simpson), Nolan, Cosgrove, Sloan, Bent
Subs: Collett, Graham, Kee, Lusty, Devlin, Wallace
Santa Clara: Batista, M Pereira (’61 Victor), Adriano (’55 Ferreira), G Silva (’70 H Pereira), Rocha, Brenner, Venancio, Lima (’55 Nunes), Wendel (’55 Costa), Serginho, Lopes
Subs: Neneca, Afonso, Pacheco
Referee: Adam Ladeback (Sweden)
