Cliftonville's Champions League dream ended as quickfire double sets Lanchkhuti up for victory

Belfast Telegraph

a day ago

The Reds will look back with regret on a crazy 60 seconds 10 minutes into the second half that proved costly to their quest to be the first Irish League club to progress beyond the first round of the competition.
Georgian champions Lanchkhuti struck twice in that whirlwind spell, first through international midfielder Anano Tsikaridze and then Eter Sulashvili, leaving Cliftonville with a major task to turn the game around in sweltering 28 degree heat.
Abbie Magee struck to halve the deficit just as the game hit 90 minutes and deep in injury time, as the Solitude girls pushed desperately for an equaliser, she brought a save from goalkeeper Tatia Gabunia, but that wasn't enough to prevent a 2-1 defeat.
While the Reds did achieve a first win in European competition when they defeated Kosovan title winners Mitrovica on Wednesday, ultimately there were unable to complete the job that they had gone to Kosovo to do.
The absence of experienced former Northern Ireland international Kirsty McGuinness was undoubtedly a factor for the Reds.
The departures of other internationals since they won the League title last October has left Cliftonville short of strength in depth, but they are still strong with their best team on the pitch and, with McGuinness missing through suspension after being shown two yellow cards in the 3-1 extra-time win over Mitrovica, they weren't at full strength and her pace, quality and goal scoring threat were missed.
Adding to the frustration will be the fact that Cliftonville had started the game well, had enjoyed the majority of possession and even had a shot from Caitlin McGuinness that came back off a post, until a late spell of pressure from Lanchkhuti in the first half followed by those goals early in the second completely changed to complexion of the game.
Caitlin McGuinness and Carla Devine had chances early on but failed to trouble the goalkeeper, and when Lanchkhuti did pose the first real danger just before the half hour mark Rachel Norney got down at her near post to save.
Teegan Lynch had a shot saved at the opposite end, just before that close call when McGuinness hit the woodwork, before the Reds survived a late first-half rally when Sulashvili's effort came back off crossbar and then the same player brought a save from Norney in quick succession.
Lanchkhuti started the second half just as they finished the first and stunned Cliftonville twice in as many minutes, with defensive errors contributing to both goal as Tsikaridze scored the first on 55 minutes and Sulashvili really dented the Reds' hope with the second goal just a minute later.
The game would have been over had Norney not prevented Sulashvili from scoring a third six minutes later.
As it was, the Reds were still just about alive as the clock ticked down and they carved out opportunities. Naomi McLaughlin had a shot saved when she went through one-on-one with Tatia Gabunia and then had a shot from distance that the goalkeeper dealt with comfortably.
When Marissa Callaghan fired wide it looked like the final chance had gone, but there was still more to come from Cliftonville.
Magee stuck to give them a glimmer of a chance and with five minutes of added time indicated there was hope that an equaliser would come, but when Gabunia then denied Magee a second those hopes were crushed and the chance of history was gone.
CLIFTONVILLE: Norney, Magee, Burrows, Morgan, O McGuinness, Carleton, Lynch, Callaghan, McLaughlin, C McGuinness, Devine (O'Neill 77).
Unused subs: Bradley, McAllister, Markey, Gallagher, Thompson, Cunningham.
LANCHKHUTI: Gabunia, Matveeva, Tsikaridze, Sulashvili (Smith Powell 67), Camargo Isaza, Russel, Murillo, Tsulaia (Dimopoulou 83), Telles Ortiz (Gujabidze 83), Chkhartishvili, Girchits (Chichinadze 71).