European Progress For Swans Despite Defeat

Swansea City stumbled into the last 32 of the Europa League despite falling to a 1-0 defeat to St Gallen, in Switzerland.

Requiring a point to guarantee their progression, Swansea put in a lacklustre performance and went down to Marco Mathys’ late strike.

The Swiss side, who had no chance of qualification, also had a goal ruled out for a push on Neil Taylor. Luckily for Swansea Russia’s Kuban Krasnodar failed to win at Valencia, sealing Swansea passage despite having not won their last four European games.

The fog had set in at the AFG Arena in time for kick-off and it was a bleak and uninteresting first-half for both sides.

However, it was Swansea who carved the best early chances with Roland Lamah scuffing a shot past the post and St Gallen goalkeeper Marcel Herzog had to keep out a low shot from Jonjo Shelvey.

ErmirLenjani went closest for the hosts, firing just wide at Tremmel’s near post, while Roland Lamah should have put the Swans in front when his 20 yard effort dribbled wide with the keeper beaten.

Shortly after the restart, the returning Wilfried Bony rose to meet Jonathan De Guzman’s corner but could only fire inches wide of the near post.

Roberto Rodriguez then had the host’s best chance to put them ahead as sloppy play from Swansea put him one-on-one with Tremmel. The German came to Swansea’s rescue, producing a fantastic save.

And he had to be alert again as Rodriguez was set free once again and tremmel was once again called on to keep out the winger.

With just 20 minutes to go, the home side had the ball in the net. A deep cross was deflected into his own net by Neil Taylor but the referee spotted a push on the full-back and ruled out the goal.

And only seconds later Jose Canas had to clear Marco Mathys header off the line when he connected with an in-swinging corner.

Swansea did not heed the warnings and St Gallen deservedly took the lead with just over 10 minutes to go. A quickly taken free-kick saw the ball being squared in from the right and Mathys volleyed home to break Swansea’s resistance.

The Swans nearly equalised later on when Pablo Hernandez shot from the right side of the area but couldn’t find the target.

As news filtered through that Krasnodar had failed to win in Spain, Swansea players and fans began to celebrate.

But there would have been little celebrating soon after the match due to the underwhelming performance from Michael Laudrup’s side.