At the end of the night for Scottish teams in European action , it was certainly a mixed bag of results , Motherwell again put in a very good performance whilst Hibs were totally outclassed in Slovenia.
First the good news , Motherwell look favorites to make it through to the last qualifying round of the Europa League as they travelled to Northern Norway and came back with a very positive 1-1 draw vs Aalesunds , A Jamie Murphy goal 3 minutes after half time nearly secured another win for manager Craig Brown. Murphy is now Motherwell's all time top European scorer although his night along with the manager and fans was ruined when Aalesunds equalised with a penalty in the last minute. In a weeks time Motherwell will surely be able to finish the tie and join Dundee Utd in the play-offs.
Now the bad , many including myself think that John Hughes got his team selection wrong when he dropped Anthony stokes and Derek Riordan from his starting line-up. Why drop your 2 biggest goal threats and just invite a team like NK Maribor onto you??. It all started to go wrong in 32 minutes when Josip Ilicic got the Slovenians first , the same player then added another goal on 52 minutes before the game was put out of reach for Hibs as Tavares put Maribor 3 in front. John Hughes responded with finally putting on Stokes and Riordan but the damage was already done and Hibs look all but out.
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