Shamrock Rovers face a major battle to progress from the league phase of the UEFA Conference League after they were outclassed 2-0 by Slovenian side NK Celje at Tallaght Stadium.
A sublime first-half brace from the unstoppable Franko Kovacevic condemned Rovers to their second successive league phase loss and they barely laid a glove on their Slovenian opponents.
Stephen Bradley's side are bang out of form at the business end of the season, having lost four of their last five matches in all competitions ahead of a potential title-clinching trip to Derry, and with an FAI Cup final also on the horizon.
If ever there was a bubbling Conference League rivalry, this was it. Both managers did their talking beforehand and neither offered the sign of peace at full-time.
Kovacevic, the man in form with 10 goals in eight games for Celje, struck fear into the Hoops defence.
After just two minutes the striker forced Ed McGinty into a smart save and he thought he had broken the deadlock in the twelfth minute when he bundled the ball home, before a four-minute VAR review adjudged him to have fouled Pico Lopes.
But Rovers couldn’t keep Kovacevic down. The Croatian showed some dancing feet on the edge of the box, leaving Lopes on the floor and he drove the ball into the top corner in the 33rd minute.
Seven minutes later Kovacevic doubled Celje’s lead as he tapped in Lukasz Bejger’s header for his 12th goal in nine games.
It was a very soft way to concede from a Rovers point of view, which summed up a passive first-half display.
Stephen Bradley must have torn down the walls in the dressing room as his charges emerged fired up for the second half and should have halved the deficit.
Rory Gaffney’s flick from close range was deflected and magnificently clawed off the line by Zan-Luk Leban.
But it proved only a mini-revival as Celje soon returned to their silky selves.
Juanjo Nieto’s long-range strike forced McGinty into action before substitute Milot Avdyli missed the rebound to keep the Hoops just about above water.
Lopes thought he had set up a grandstand closing 15 minutes when he flicked on Dylan Watts’ cross but Leban was there with another superb stop.
Rovers huffed and puffed towards the end but were unable to give themselves a late glimmer of hope with a goal and this defeat leaves them languishing in 33rd place of 36 teams in the Conference League table.
Rovers are two points adrift of the play-off spots but face daunting tasks against AEK Athens and Shakhtar either side of the FAI Cup final, although there are winnable matches against fellow strugglers Breidablik and Hamrun which could give them a stay of execution.
Shamrock Rovers: Edward McGinty; Daniel Cleary, Pico, Adam Matthews (Lee Grace 60); Cory O'Sullivan, Connor Malley (Aaron McEneff 62), Matthew Healy, Dylan Watts (John McGovern 82), Joshua Honohan; Rory Gaffney (Michael Noonan 82), Daniel Mandroiu (Graham Burke 60).
NK Celje: Zan-Luk Leban; Zan Karnicnik, Juan Nieto Zarzoso, Artemijus Tutyskinas, Lukasz Bejger; Darko Hrka (Papa Mustapha Daniel 55), Mario Kvesic (Ivica Vidovic 82), Vitali Lisakovich (Milot Avdyli 55); Danijel Sturm (Rudi Pozeg Vancas 87), Nikita Iosifov, Franko Kovacevic (Matej Poplatnik 82).
Referee: Ondrej Berka
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