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Kerri Letmon bagged a crucial extra-time goal as Ireland’s Peamount United beat Dinamo Minsk in the Uefa Women’s Champions League qualifying tournament in Croatia on Wednesday.
James O’Callaghan’s side will face either host club Osijek or Slovakian side Spartak Myjava, who meet this afternoon, in Saturday’s pathway final.
Inseparable from their Belarusian counterparts at the end of 90 minutes after an initial opener from Peas striker Ellen Dolan was cancelled out by Anna Sas, Letmon produced the goods in the additional periods to give the reigning SSE Airtricity Women’s Premier Division champions the spoils.
Playing in Europe for the first time since 2021 – when their Champions League qualification hopes were ended by Spartak Subotica of Serbia – Peamount couldn’t have dreamt of a better start to the action in the Croatian venue.
After heading wide of the target from an earlier cross by Jess Fitzgerald, Dolan found the bottom corner of the Dinamo net via an assist by Niamh Farrelly on seven minutes.
Peamount remained a goal in front when a water break was called midway through the first half of a game played in warm conditions. But Dinamo levelled matters in the 33rd minute when Sas supplied the finishing touches to an Alina Charlionak corner.
Dinamo boss Yuri Maleev made a triple substitution when the play resumed, while O’Callaghan also added Letmon to the mix shortly after the resumption and she was later joined by fellow substitutes Michelle Doonan and Ciara Maher.
Even though Dinamo had 13 shots over the course of normal time – in comparison to five for Peamount – the Irish side’s goalkeeper Niamh Reid-Burke was an assured presence between the sticks.
The former Republic of Ireland international helped the Dublin club to force the game into 30 additional minutes and much like at the start of the tie, Peas laid down a marker in the early stages of extra-time.
Letmon made herself an instant hero when she struck a goal on her Peas debut in a home league fixture against Athlone Town at the end of July and the former DLR Waves and Shelbourne star enhanced her reputation by sliding a shot beyond the reach of Dinamo’s Ekaterina Kovalchuk in the 96th minute of play.
In other Champions League action, Republic of Ireland international striker Saoirse Noonan scored a hat-trick in Celtic’s 3-1 extra-time win over Finnish side KuPS in Lithuania.
The 25-year-old scored her first a minute after coming on just past the hour mark to take the game to extra-time and added two more in the first half of extra-time to secure the win.
PEAMOUNT UNITED: Reid-Burke; O’Callaghan (Brophy, 100), Berrill, Moloney, McCartan; Farrelly (Maher, 88); Watkins (Letmon, 52), Fitzgerald (McManus, 100), Duggan, Beirne (Doonan, 74); Dolan.
DINAMO-BSUPC: Kovalchuk; Slesarchik, Maher, Sas, Maniukova, Kapustina (Kalinouskaya, 46); Kharashchak (Kavaliova, 46), Charlionak (Siniauskaya, 71), Artishevskaya (Harshkova, 46); Pilipenko, Shuppo (Kapysha, 100).
Referee: T Misja (Slovenia).
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