The New Saints were beaten 1-0 by Moldovan side Petrocub in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League third qualifying round tie on Tuesday night.
Craig Harrison’s team travelled to the Moldovan capital of Chișinău knowing that victory in this tie would see them progress to the UEFA Europa League play-off round and therefore guarantee a place in the league stage of European competition – which would be a first for a JD Cymru Premier club.
That is still a very real possibility, with it all still to play for in the second leg at Park Hall next Tuesday night.
The decisive moment in the first leg came in the 20th minute when an edge of the box shot from Donalio Douanla took a deflection off Danny Davies and beat Connor Roberts via the post.
TNS had chances to equalise – with Ben Clark and Declan McManus proving particularly effective off the bench – while Petrocub could also have doubled their lead but it remained a narrow advantage for the Moldovan champions.
The winners of the tie will face a UEFA Europa League play-off against the losers of the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round tie between Qarabağ of Azerbaijan and Bulgarian side Ludogorets Razgrad.
The losers will drop to the UEFA Conference League play-off, where they will meet the losers of the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round tie between Lithuania’s FK Panevėžys or Maccabi Tel-Aviv of Israel.
