Tough night in Poland – but Caernarfon Town heroes go down fighting

Legia Warsaw 6 Caernarfon Town 0
Uefa Europa Conference League second qualifying round first leg

Spanish striker Marc Gual hit a hat-trick for Legia Warsaw as massive Cymru Premier underdogs Caernarfon Town went down fighting in a near-deserted Polish Army Stadium tonight.

The Europa Conference League first leg clash was played behind closed doors at the 31,103 capacity ground due to Uefa sanctioning the home club over crowd trouble.

Gual’s header and Japanese international Ryoya Morishita’s effort – which was unfortunately turned into his own goal by keeper Stephen McMullan – gave the Poles a 2-0 lead at the break.

Spain under-21 Gual completed his hat-trick with two second-half goals with Blaz Kramer also scoring after missing a penalty.

Claude Gonçalves completed the scoring late on.

Town competed well throughout, but were punished by the record 15-time Polish champions’ sharp finishing.

Daniel Gosset’s long range effort flew over the bar while a long clearance from McMullan found Zack Clarke in a promising position, but he fired into the side netting.

The sides meet in the second leg next Thursday, with Caernarfon hopeful the game can go ahead as planned at Bangor City Stadium despite safety concerns.