Football
PA Sport 7y

Rangers win, St Johnstone lose in Europa League first-round qualifiers

Rangers had Kenny Miller to thank for victory in their first European fixture in six years.

Pedro Caixinha's side laboured to a 1-0 win over Progres Niederkorn of Luxembourg in the first leg of their Europa League qualifier.

Miller hit the only goal of the game at Ibrox, finishing off a slick move following a quickly taken free kick.

Fellow Scottish Premiership side St Johnstone could not follow suit and slipped to a 2-1 home defeat in their first-leg clash against Lithuanian outfit FK Trakai.

The visitors scored early through Maksim Maksimov and quickly restored their lead after Joe Shaughnessy headed home in the 32nd minute.

A magnificent 25-yard strike from Vaidotas Silenas -- who was later sent off -- earned them a win to take back home for the second leg.

League of Ireland runners-up Cork started their campaign strongly as they won 2-0 against 10-man Levadia Tallinn in Estonia, with Garry Buckley and Steven Beattie grabbing the goals.

Gary Shaw scored the only goal as Shamrock won 1-0 away at Icelandic side Stjarnan but Derry could not make it a trio of wins as they crashed to a 6-1 loss at FC Midtjylland of Denmark.

Northern Ireland also have three representatives in the first-round qualifiers, with Crusaders winning 3-1 at home to Liepaja of Latvia as Philip Lowry, Michael Carvill and Jordan Owens struck.

Elsewhere, Coleraine were hammered 7-0 away to Norwegian side Haugesund, with Ballymena United also losing to Scandinavian opposition with a 3-0 defeat at Odd.

Welsh Premier League side Connah's Quay recorded an impressive 1-0 win over HJK Helsinki as Nathan Woolfe scored the only goal in Nantporth.

Meanwhile Bangor and Bala Town both lost narrowly, the former beaten 1-0 at Lyngby as Bron Blume scored.

Chris Venables scored for Bala to keep their hopes of progression alive despite a 2-1 home defeat to Liechtenstein Cup winners Vaduz.

For a complete list of the day's results, click here.

^ Back to Top ^