Derry City’s Europa Conference League run came to a crushing end as they lost on penalties to Kazakhstan side Tobol at Dublin’s Tallaght Stadium
Going into the game a goal down from last week’s first leg, Will Patching’s early goal gave Derry a 1-0 win.
That took the game to penalties, with Pavel Kireenko scoring to give his side a 6-5 shootout win after Derry keeper Brian Maher had his effort saved.
Tobol now go through to a play-off for the group stages.
They will play Viktoria Plzeň, a Czech Republic side that played in the Champions League last year and were knocked out in the group stages.
Derry were aiming to make it past the third round of a European competition for the first time in the club’s history.
Tobol came to Tallaght with a one-goal advantage thanks to a great strike from Roman Asrankulov in the first leg.
Will Patching quickly levelled the score on aggregate when his spot kick sent stopper Ivan Konovalov the wrong way in the 15th minute.
However, after a goalless extra time the game went to penalties. Both teams failed to score their fifth penalty after Ben Doherty’s effort was saved before Jovan Ilic’s spot kick struck the crossbar.
Derry started the game with intent and could have opened the scoring in the first two minutes when Paul McMullan’s looping pass fell to Jamie McGonigle at the back post, but his header was just over the bar.
Referee Peter Kralović awarded the home side a penalty after a collision in the box between Michael Duffy and Ivan Rogac. Patching made no mistake with the resulting spot kick and fired a strong strike into the bottom right corner.
The away side came close when Igor Ivanovic showed great pace to travel into the Derry penalty area and fired a strong strike which was denied by Cameron McJannet, who made a crucial clearance to stop the shot.
It was a more even second half with Ivanovic having another good opportunity when his strike looked destined to find the back of the net, but it curled wide.
With seconds to go of normal time a well-timed pass from Brandon Kavanagh played Cian Kavanagh through on goal, but he fired wide.
Into the shootout and McEleney, Brandon Kavanagh, Danny Mullen and Jordan McEneff all found the back of the net before Doherty’s strike was saved by Konovalov.
After Ilic hit the woodwork, Cian Kavanagh scored before goalkeeper Maher’s penalty was saved and Kireenko found the back of the net to knock the Candystripes out.