Cork City will have it all to do in their UEFA Cup first round second leg clash with Slavia Prague after losing the first leg 2-0 in the Czech Republic.
With manager Damien Richardson forced to watch the game from a hospital bed due to a clot on his lung, Cork started with an attacking line-up, with Greg O'Halloran dropped in favour of the more offence minded Roy O’Donovan.
However it was the home side who enjoyed the majority of the first half chances, using the flanks to good advantage as they put Cork under pressure early on.
Cork goalkeeper Michael Devine was called into action early on with Tomas Hrdlicka and Slavia skipper Karel Pitak both forcing fine saves from the shot-stopper.
With Cork offering little up front it fell to Devine to keep his side in the game and a fine reaction save saw him turn a header from Pitka onto the crossbar in the 35th minute before he made another great save to deny Hrdlicka three minutes before the break.
Cork would have been happy to go into the break with the scores level but there was no let up for them in the second half as the home side continued to pile the pressure on.
The deadlock was broken on 62 minutes when Cork centre-back Dan Murray up-ended Pesir for a free-kick 20 yards from goal allowing the ever dangerous Hrdlicka to step up a launch a beautiful shot that found it’s way past the despairing dive of Devine.
The goal seemed to rouse Cork and they could have been level five minutes later when Murray met George O'Callaghan’s floated cross but could only direct it against the upright before it was cleared to safety.
Cork’s best chance of the night came a minute later when O’Callaghan again launched the ball into the danger area where it fell to Joe Gamble but his half-volley came back off the post. O’Donovan pounced of the rebound, only to see his effort come back off the post too.
Things got worse for the visitors twelve minutes from time when Krajcik broke away and pulled back the ball for Pitak to slot the ball past Devine from close range.
City will still have hope when Slavia come to Turner’s Cross on September 29, but with a two goal deficit to make up, they’ll need to produce something special in they are to progress - something which manager Damien Richardson believes they can do.
"It is still half-time - with an early goal and support of our fans we can fight at home," he insisted.
"We allowed Slavia too much space in the midfield especially in the first half, but surviving it with 0-0 was a bonus for us. And for this we have to thank goalkeeper Michael Devine, who provided a couple of magnificent saves."
"We came into the match after conceding the first goal, we were close to scoring the equaliser."
