Cardiff Met narrowly lose to Progrès Niederkorn
Cardiff Metropolitan suffered a narrow defeat to Progrès Niederkorn in the first leg of their Europa League qualifier.
Mayron de Almeida’s second-half goal handed gave Roland Vrabec his first win as Progrès manager. He was previously the manager of Liechtenstein side FC Vaduz, when they knocked out Bala Town in 2017.
Met held the hosts to a goalless first half but just after the hour mark, de Almeida’s header beat Will Fuller and earned Vrabec’s side a first leg victory.
The Met will now be hopeful of overturning the deficit in the return leg when they host the Luxembourg side at Leckwith Stadium.
Should they avoid conceding an away goal to Progres and score two goals, then they will face Cork City in the first qualifying round.
Progrès qualified for the Europa League after finishing fourth in the Luxembourg National Division last season.
Met, conceded one goal fewer than Rangers, who were knocked out of the same competition in 2017.
