A capacity crowd of 7,500 saw Cork City progress to the quarter -finals of the UEFA Intertoto Cup following a 1-0 win over NEC Nijmegen at Turner's Cross this afternoon. A Kevin Doyle header on 47 minutes set up a quarter-final clash with French side FC Nantes Atlantique. The first leg will be played at the Stade Beaujoire in Nantes next weekend.
With Danny Murray imperious at the back, Colin T O'Brien dominant in midfield and John O'Flynn a menace all afternoon, City were not to be denied. Nijmegen started with two changes to the side that drew 0-0 in Holland. Attacking midfielder Patrick Pothuizen and striker Romano Denneboom replaced Peter Van Der Sleen and Peter Wisgerhof as manager Johan Neeskens set out with attack in mind.
The home side started the stronger and dominated the opening quarter with O'Brien and O'Flynn looking sharp. The first real chance of the game came in the 28th minute with City winger Liam Kearney going close with a header from an excellent Cillian Lordan cross. City's only other chance of the half came in the 40th minute when O'Flynn fired over from the edge of the box.
City, now playing with the wind took the lead two minutes into the second-half when under-21 international Doyle headed home from six yards. Danny Murphy found O'Callaghan with a quick throw at the edge of the box. O'Callaghan crossed first time and there was Doyle to head home the opening goal. City should have been two up two minutes later when the normally reliable O'Flynn missed from inside the box when one-on-one with the keeper. Flynn, expecting the referee to blow for a foul, hesitated and that allowed Nijmegen keeper Dennis Gentenaar to save at the expense of a corner.
O'Flynn came close again in the 50th minute but this time his header was well saved by Gentenaar. City went close again in the 85th when Doyle got on the end of a perfect Colin O'Brien pass but his shot went inches wide. Nijmegen should have equalised a minute later but substitute Alexander Prent was denied by a despairing dive by City keeper Michael Devine, who had a great afternoon and pulled off some world class saves.
Afterward, a delighted Colin T O'Brien told RTÉ news: "It's great, I'm delighted, we're all delighted. We had a lot of belief all week that we could score and get something from the game. NEC are a good side, very good technically but we had a lot of belief. We're into the quarter final now and we'll see how we get on there."
Meanwhile, eircom League Chairman Declan O Luanaigh has congratulated Cork on reaching the third round.
He said: "Cork City's win over NEC Nijmegen is only the second time an Irish club has triumphed over Dutch opposition in 17 competitive European fixtures. Their performances home and away against Malmo FF and NEC Nijmegen are a credit to Cork City Chairman Brian Lennox, Club Secretary Jerry Harris, Manager Pat Dolan, the players and everyone connected with the club. Their travelling supporters have also been great ambassadors for the club, the eircom League and Irish football in general. On behalf of the eircom League I wish Cork City well against Nantes next Saturday and also all the eircom League clubs competing in European competition next week. Cork City have shown that eircom League Clubs can compete in Europe and hopefully their success to date will continue and be replicated by Bohemians, Longford Town and Shelbourne in the coming weeks."
The only other Irish club victory over Dutch opposition was Dundalk's 2-1 away win over DOS Utrecht in the first round of the 1968/69 Fairs Cup. Cork City's victory is the first Irish victory on home soil over Dutch opposition in a competitive European fixture.
They have equalled Dundalk's achievement of winning through two rounds of a European club competition. That came in the 1979/80 European Cup. In the preliminary round they beat Linfield, in the 1st round they beat Hibernians (Malta), before losing to Celtic in the 2nd round.
Cork have become the first eircom League club to reach the third round proper of any European competition.
Filed by Mark O'Neill-Cummins
