A beautiful strike by Roman Asrankulov condemned Derry City to a 1-0 defeat against FC Tobol Kostanay in Kazakhstan this afternoon.

This result means that the Candystripes will need to win their home leg in Tallaght Stadium next week in order to keep their Europa Conference League dreams alive.

Similar to Derry City’s previous two games in the Europa Conference League, the Irish side started slowly and were under the cosh in the early stages of this encounter with Tobol passing the ball around sharply trying to find their dangerman, Serge Deble.

Deble would have the first chance of the game when he pivoted to fire a powerful shot at Brian Maher from the penalty spot but the Derry stopper dealt with the effort confidently.

Tobol started the game physically and an early yellow card for a hip-height tackle by Ramazan Orazov on Will Patching was a sign of things to come as Roman Asrankulov and Samat Zharynbetov would also go into the book in the first half for agricultural tackles, to say the least.

It could have been four yellow cards or even a red for the home side when Serikzhan Muzhikov dived in with a two-footed tackle on Adam O’Reilly midway through the first half, but amazingly no cards were shown.

The best chance of the first half created panic in the Derry City box as the Deble fired a shot which was blocked by Cameron McJannett. 

The deflection spun into the path of Ronan Boyce who couldn’t clear the ball away from danger, allowing Deble to get a second bite of the cherry and flashed a shot across the face of goal under pressure from McJannett and Maher.

Tobol again started the second half brightly and could have capitalised on an untimely slip by Ben Doherty.

Islam Chesnokov robbed the ball on the edge of the Derry City box and looked certain to score but Maher dived at the feet of the Tobol attacker to keep the sides level.

The second half saw half-chances for both sides, with both Derry and Tobol trying their luck from range but causing few issues for both goalkeepers. 

The Kazakh side would take the lead in impressive fashion when full-back Roman Asrankulov received the ball on the corner of the Derry City box and rifled a shot off the crossbar into the top corner – an unstoppable shot.

Tobol looked the more likely team to score after the goal but there were very few clear-cut chances as the game became more stretched.

Michael Duffy was given a golden opportunity to level the game when a poor goal kick made by Tobol made its way to the Derry winger but he fired into the side netting, letting the home side off the hook.

The game ended in defeat for Derry City, but a one-goal deficit is certainly not the worst result to take back to Ireland as the Candystripes prepare for the second leg in Dublin next week.