There was a crowd of over 30,000 at the game tonight – apart from the Legia supporters, it represented a lot of new faces saw a League of Ireland club in action live for the first time.
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The win for Legia gives them a comfortable advantage heading into the return leg at the Polish Army Stadium where they are undefeated this season, while for Dundalk they must score at least twice to stand any chance of progressing to the Champions League group stage.
Prior to that Dundalk had looked the more unsafe side with Patrick McEleney going close on a couple of occasions in the first half and Daryl Horgan stinging the palms of Legia goalkeeper Arkadiusz Malarz on the restart.
After skipping by two players and closing in on goal, Shields intuitively laid the ball off to Horgan who curled his first time shot into the arms of Legia goalkeeper Arkadiusz Malarz.
McEleney, who was prominent throughout the first-half, had another effort on 12 minutes, but he shot over at the end of a good build up. Andy Boyle threw himself in the way and, although his back was turned and his arm close to his side when the ball hit it, the referee appeared to have no hesitation in pointing to the spot.
In what was probably their first clear sight of goal in the whole game, Hungarian worldwide Nemanja Nikolic got in behind the Dundalk defence and, when the dive of Rogers forced him too wide to shoot himself, he played the ball back for Langil to have a strike at goal.
After the Dundalk protests had been waved away and Boyle yellow carded, Nikolic tucked the resultant spot kick into the bottom corner of the net to put Legia 1-0 ahead.
In the final minute of normal time Kilduff had a chance to level matters but blasted over the target after a promising attack.
Although Legia looked impressive after opening the scoring, the final result was harsh on Dundalk, and speaking on RTE afterwards, Dundalk manager Stephen Kenny was in no doubt that the penalty decision was the turning point in the game. “You can’t give big decisions with huge ramifications on a whim like that. It’s a really poor decision”. Legia, by contrast, were struggling to get any kind foothold in the game, their frustration at the home side’s early control showing in a succession of fouls.
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“I have no problem with the overall officiating of the game itself but you cant make a whimsical decision like that, when you can’t be sure of anything. That was a critical moment in the game and it was not a deliberate handball”.
