In the end, St Patrick's Athletic had only one goal to show for their efforts against nine-man Nomme Kalju, but manager Stephen Kenny was not too downbeat ahead of the Conference League second-leg encounter in Estonia next week.
Sub Chris Forrester struck the only goal of the game on 90 minutes to give Pat's a slender 1-0 advantage in the tie, with the winners facing either Besiktas or Shakhtar Donetsk in round three.
The League of Ireland side had 32 attempts on goal at Richmond Park, compared to two for their opponents. Kalju were reduced to nine after Rommi Siht and Danyl Mashchenko were dismissed on 64 and 69 minutes respectively but Pat's could not make their numerical supremacy count by scoring more than one.
Speaking to the media afterwards, Kenny accentuated the positives, when saying: "Any win in Europe is important, they showed their grit and determination by winning in Albania in the previous round which was a great win for them. We knew they would give nothing up. We're glad to win the game and put ourselves in a strong position going into the second leg.
"We are disappointed that we couldn't get a second because a second would have a put is in a really strong position. We had a lot of chances to get a second but we couldn't take them. We can't dwell on that even though we are a little frustrated but we'll take the 1-0 victory overall as a good result."
The manager also paid tribute to those who played a part in teeing up Forrester, on what was his 26th appearance in Europe, for the winning goal.
"I think all the players off the bench made an impact," said Kenny.
"Brandon Kavanagh with a slide-rule pass and Conor Carty had the shot. Chris was there to read the situation and have the composure to finish it. He's a big-game player and it was important to get that goal."
Pat's midfielder Kian Leavy also paid tribute to Forrester, telling RTÉ Sport's Tony O'Donoghue: "To have a player of that calibre to bring on is unbelievable. It's unbelievable to learn from him and he's great with us as well because he's got so much experience playing as many game as he has. He'll give you all the advice in the world and when he's on the bench he's probably disappointed he's not playing."
Watch England v Spain in the Euro 2025 final on Sunday from 4pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app
