Teenager Aidomo Emakhu was hailed a hero after handing Shamrock Rovers an aggregate lead with a fairytale injury-time winner.
It was the 17-year-old’s first goal for the club and floored masters of the ‘dark arts’ Teuta who arrived in Tallaght with the sole mission of frustrating Rovers.
But the League of Ireland champions deserved their winner and will take a slender lead to Albania ahead of next week’s second-leg.
Rovers boss Stephen Bradley said: “You have to be careful throwing young lads in like that but Aidomo has been brilliant in training.
“I just sensed it was the right time for him and hopefully it’s the first of many goals that he gets because he’s a great kid.”
Bradley continued: “Teuta came with a very defensive plan and they thought they would get out with a 0-0 but we kept going and got what we deserved.
“They were very good at the dark arts and tried to slow the game down but I thought the referee was very good and refused to buy into it.
“In the second-half, we had to increase the tempo and we knew we could tire them out as they couldn’t keep filling those gaps for 90 minutes.
“We score late goals because we know we can take the legs out of teams and get at them mentally and physically.
“But we’ll go over there next week to win the game. We’ve already played Slovan Bratislava in 36 degrees of heat so that will give us a good standing.
“But Longford Town here on Sunday is the focus now. We need to be ready for that and have the same winning mentality.
Hoops midfielder Dylan Watts maintained his hot-streak of late with another man-of-the-match performance and said: "It was a relief to see the ball go in.
“We had a lot of possession in the game, we just couldn't break them down. I’m absolutely delighted for Aidomo.
“He has been in training with us for a few weeks, and he has shown a lot. I couldn't be happier for him, he deserved that.
Watts continued: "They were tough to break down, but the lads stuck at it and managed to get a goal.
“We always believe we can score no matter what time, you see how many many goals we score, we keep going to the final whistle and we got one tonight.
"It will be a tough game out there, they will have a go and we're under no illusions that it'll be a tough game but we feel we can get the job done."
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