Ventspils annihilated in Europa League qualifying match

  • 2011-08-05
  • Jared Grellet

BELGRADE, Serbia– Ventspils has been annihilated 7-0 the return leg of their Europa League third qualifying round match ending the involvement of Baltic clubs in UEFA competitions.

 

Following on from Lithuanian club Ekranas’ exit from the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday, Ventspils followed suit on Thursday in UEFA’s second tier club competition with a dismal away performance to Serbian club Crvena zvezda.

 

Trailing 2-1 following the first leg, Ventspils remained hopeful of advancing to the next round when they traveled to Belgrade. The return leg however got of to a horrible start when Frederico Martinez opened the scoring with an own goal in the 13th minute.

 

By the 26th minute the Latvian club was already staring down the barrel of a big defeat with their opponents having already gone 3-0 up. In the 41st minute Crvena zezda scored again to all but lock the game up.

 

Frustration began to show amongst the Latvians in the second half with Ritvars Rugins given his marching orders in the 52nd minute following his second yellow card in just as many minutes.

 

Crvena zvezda wasted little time in taking advantage of the extra man advantage, scoring their fifth goal just a minute after Rugins’ exit from the field.

 

They were not done yet however, with a further two goals coming in the 60th and 75th minutes, adding insult to injury for the Ventspils players.

 

There are now no Baltic teams remaining in the Europa League or Champions League draws.