published: friday 5 october 2007, 0.20cet blackburn rovers fc 2-1 larissa fc (agg 2-3)
cleyton's opener proved decisive as the greek club eliminated their english premier league opponents.
despite a valiant comeback by their english premier league opponents, larissa fc held on for a memorable aggregate win to reach the uefa cup group stage at the expense of blackburn rovers fc.
cleyton opener cleyton's early goal, which gave the greek visitors a 3-0 aggregate lead, was cancelled out by matt derbyshire's retaken penalty and a stephen warnock strike but, with two further goals required in the second half, blackburn had given themselves too much to do.
larissa chances mark hughes's side had been hoping to get off to a good start in order to make inroads into their two-goal first-leg deficit but they found themselves another goal worse off after 17 minutes when cleyton controlled panagiotis katsiaros's cross and rifled in the opener from eleven metres.
alexandrou chance rovers started sluggishly and cleyton could have doubled his tally when he fired just wide, but the home side finally mustered an effort on goal when christopher samba headed over on 27 minutes. david dunn and derbyshire both squandered chances before the visitors threatened again, this time through nektarios alexandrou, whose shot deflected wide.
derbyshire penalty blackburn pulled a goal back just before half-time when goalkeeper stefanos kotsolis brought down dunn in the penalty area and, although the larissa custodian saved derbyshire's initial effort, he was adjudged to have advanced from his line and the england under-21 forward made no mistake second time around.
warnock goal six minutes after the break warnock gave rovers hope when he latched on to david bentley's pass and dispatched it from distance. prompted by the excellent bentley the hosts streamed forward in search of two more goals, derbyshire narrowly missing warnock's centre and samba heading over again. those efforts were in vain, though, as the greek side held on for a memorable aggregate win.
