The New Saints bowed out of the UEFA Europa League following a 0-0 draw against Petrocub at Park Hall on Tuesday night, confirming a 1-0 defeat on aggregate in their third qualifying round tie.
Craig Harrison’s side knew that they would become the first Welsh side to reach the league (formerly group) stage of European competition if they could overturn the narrow deficit from the first leg, but they could not find a breakthrough in Oswestry despite dominating possession.
Both sides were reduced to 10 men in the first half, with TNS first to lose a player in the 40th minute when a VAR check saw Jordan Williams sent off for elbowing an opponent.
However, the teams were levelled up again in the third minute of stoppage time when Petrocub winger Dan Puscas received his second yellow card of the game for a bad challenge.
It was a game of few chances in the pouring rain at Park Hall, with TNS’ best opportunity to send the tie to extra-time coming in the 91st minute remaining when Josh Daniels danced forward but could only fire a shot straight at the goalkeeper.
Defeat on aggregate now means that TNS will move to the UEFA Conference League play-off round, where they will play the loser of the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round tie between FK Panevėžys or Maccabi Tel-Aviv – their second leg takes place on Thursday following a 2-1 away win for the Israeli side in the first leg.
“We’ve come so close,” Craig Harrison told Sgorio after the game. “We’ve dominated the game, not really conceded many opportunities.
“It’s just really disappointing, we’ve had a couple of opportunities and possibly we should have done better but the lads have given everything.
“Very, very fortunately we’ve got another opportunity [to qualify for a league stage] and we need to pick ourselves up as quickly as possible, not feel sorry for ourselves. We need to just get on with it and prepare for the next opportunity.”
