Rubin Kazan 4-1 Shamrock Rovers

Nelson Valdez scored twice as Shamrock Rovers were beaten for a fifth time in Europa League Group A in freezing Kazan.

Relive the game as it happened with our match-tracker.

The game kicked off in a temperature of a -5 degrees with all but two of the Rovers players - skipper Dan Murray and midfielder Stephen Rice - brave enough not to wear gloves.

Rovers craved a positive start but, despite an early flurry, didn’t get it as they once again conceded an early goal in Europe, this time on ten minutes.

Paraguayan striker Valdez latched onto Christian Noboa‘s through ball to bustle past Ken Oman before drilling beyond Ryan Thompson.

Rovers bravely stung back within two minutes, however.

Ronan Finn won a free on the right which was whipped to the far post by Billy Dennehy for Oman to score with a downward header.

Having survived a couple of half chances with Valdez and Obafemi Martins shooting off target, Rovers might have gone ahead on the half hour.

Rice put Dennehy away on the right and he cut in only to shoot feebly at keeper Sergei Ryzhikov - who did spill the ball out for a corner - with Sheppard screaming for the ball in the centre.

A goalkeeping fumble at the other end, should have seen Rubin regain the lead minutes later.

Thompson flapped at a cross which was pulled back by Aleksandr Ryazantsev for Noboa whose shot was brilliantly hacked off the line by Murray.

But it was a short live reprieve as Rubin regain the lead on 36 minutes.

Martins did well on the edge of the area to set up Bebras Natcho who turned well to find the bottom corner of Thompson’s net with a crisp drive.

Valdez sealed the win on 51 minutes, latching onto a ball over the top to beat the offside trap to slam home for another fine finish.

Martins got a very contentious fourth eleven minutes later.

The Nigerian tapped home after Gokdeniz Karadeniz’s cross ricocheted luckily into his path despite the goal line assistant not having seen that it had gone out of play.

Thompson made a good save from Alan Kasaev’s close range effort on 80 minutes.

A minute later Sheppard shaved the Rubin cross bar with a volley following Enda Stevens cross from the left.

Rubin Kazan: Ryzhikov; Kaleshin, Sharonov, Navas, Bocchetti; Ryazan’s (Dyadyun, 71 mins), Boboia, Natcho, Karadeniz (Ansaldi, 68 mins); Valdez (Kasaev, 61 mins), Matins.

Shamrock Rovers: Thompson; Sullivan, Oman, Murray, Stevens; Rice; Dennehy, Turner (Twigg, 81 mins), Finn (O'Donnell, 69 mins.), Paterson (Kilduff, 69 mins); Sheppard

Referee: Harald Lechner (Austria)