Reds Crash out of Europe

FK Ventspils 4-0 Llanelli (4-1)

Llanelli's dream of a place in the Champions League second round was shattered by FK Ventspils in Latvia. The Reds went into the first round, second-leg 1-0 ahead, but the Latvian hosts were comfortable winners by four goals to nil.

After holding their hosts for almost half an hour, the visitors suffered a double blow within two minutes when Jevgenijs Kosmacovs opened the scoring after 28 minutes and prolific striker Vits Rimkus scored his first goal two minutes later.

Second-half defensive blunders allowed Andrei Butrik and Rimkus to send the Reds home empty-handed, leaving just TNS as the only realistic hope for Welsh progression in this year's European competition.

Llanelli manager Peter Nicholas said to the BBC, "It's the first time we've been in the tournament and to win one game out of two, well maybe you look at that and say it's okay.

"I think we deserved to win the first game, but we were poor in this game - very poor...I'm disappointed with the goals we gave away and there's no point hiding from the fact that it was a problem.

"We had some great opportunities in the first 25 minutes from Andy Legg's throw-in, but after that Ventspils started to play well and I've been very impressed with them."