ROVERS' UEFA Cup dream ended at the 1st round despite a 2-1 victory at Ewood Park this evening.

The 2-0 loss to Larissa at the Panthessaliko Stadium a fortnight ago proved to be too much of a deficit to pull back, and that job was made all the more difficult when Cleyton Silva fired the visitors in front on 17 minutes.

Rovers struggled to get their passing game going in a frustrating first half, but right on the stroke of half-time they were given a lifeline when David Dunn was upended in the box. Derbyshire levelling after his initial penalty kick had to be retaken.

The second half couldn't have started any better when David Bentley's centre was volleyed home at the back post by Stephen Warnock on 51 minutes, then Foerster almost put a Bentley cross into his own net, the ball flying narrowly over the bar, whilst Christopher Samba missed Rovers' best chance of the second half, heading over from close-range.

But resolute defending from the Greek side meant that they afforded few further chances for Rovers to pounce upon, Pedersen, McCarthy and Savage were all thrown on in a desperate attempt to pull the game back, but there was to be no way past as the Greek fans celebrated long and hard after the final whistle.

Before the game both Mark Hughes and Giorgos Donis resisted the temptation to tinker with their sides. The Rovers boss named the same eleven that started at the Stadium of Light on Saturday, whilst Donis kept faith with the same eleven that had played so well in the corresponding fixture a fortnight earlier.

Despite Rovers needing goals and preferably early on, the game offered very little to cheer the home fans. Larissa may have been content with their lead from the first leg but they still looked the more threatening in the early stages, the usually solid Rovers defence showing uncharacteristic frailties, allowing the Greek side to play a lot of the game in the opposition half.

The first meaningful effort on goal ended up in the back of the net, and much to the disappointment of the home fans it was Larissa who grabbed the opening goal to extend their advantage further. A centre from Alexandrou from the left wasn't dealt with Foerster's touch put the ball into the path of Cleyton Silva. He still had plenty to do, but shifted the ball to one side and fired across Brad Friedel and into the back of the net. Much to the delight of the seven hundred or so colourful Larissa fans behind that goal.

That goal left Rovers with a bigger mountain to climb than they had at the start of the game, trailing 3-0 on aggregate it meant that they would have to score four unanswered goals for them to progress through to the group stages of the competition.

But the goal shook up the home side, their confidence evaporating into the night sky as Larissa forced error after error from the home side. Passes were misplaced, players caught in possession, it wasn't pleasant viewing.

It took all of forty minutes for Rovers to get their first effort on target, David Dunn, one of the livelier players for Rovers, skipped inside to let fly from the edge of the area, but his low strike was easily dealt with by Kotsolis.

On the stroke of half time Rovers were given a lifeline when David Dunn got the last touch to the ball before being brought to the ground by the Larissa 'keeper. Swiss referee Claudio Circhetta immediately pointing to the spot.

It was Matt Derbyshire who took the responsibility of taking the penalty kick, but his strike down the middle was saved one-handed by Kotsolis, Derbyshire put home the rebound only to turn around and see the linesman's flag was raised. There had been encroachment in the area, the kick had to be taken again.

Thankfully there were no such dramas from the re-take, Derbyshire firing the ball low and hard into the bottom right hand corner of Kotsolis's goal with the Larissa 'keeper diving the opposite direction.

Mark Hughes resisted the temptation to make changes at the break, sending out the same eleven that had performed so poorly in the first half, and that patience looked to have paid off when Stephen Warnock gave Rovers the lead on 51 minutes when he volleyed home David Bentley's cross at the back post.

That prompted Rovers' best spell of the game, two minutes later another Bentley centre from the right was almost turned into his own net by Marco Foerster, the ball going agonisingly over the crossbar.

But that pressure wasn't able to build and slowly but surely the Greek side were able to regroup and restrict Rovers to very little. Morten Gamst Pedersen was brought on for Mokoena as Rovers switched to a more orthodox 4-4-2 formation, balls continued to be pumped into the area, but Larissa remained resolute.

Benni McCarthy and Robbie Savage were thrown on, but whatever Rovers tried there was to be no way through. Roque Santa Cruz fizzed an effort towards goal that Stefanos Kotsolis grabbed at the second attempt with McCarthy lurking.

With the final throw of the dice Christopher Samba was thrown up front in the final stages, and the giant defender had Rovers' best chance, but from Pedersen's long throw he headed somehow over the crossbar.

The cool heads were on the bodies of the side in crimson as they comfortably saw out the remaining minutes to claim a memorable victory over Rovers over the two legs.

ROVERS: Friedel (c), Emerton, Samba, Ooijer, Warnock, Tugay, Mokoena (sub Pedersen 62 mins), Dunn (sub Savage 78 mins), Bentley, Derbyshire (sub McCarthy 69 mins), Santa Cruz.

Subs not used: Brown (GK), Savage, Khizanishvili, Rigters, Kane.

LARISSA: Kotsolis, Dabizas, Kyriakidis, Galitsios, Cleyton (sub Kalantzis 78 mins) , Sarmiento, Fotakis, Alexandrou (sub Kotsios 57 mins), Foerster, Bakayoko (sub Dimitris 90 mins), Katsiaros.

Subs not used: Kipouros, Parra, Venetis, Bachramis.

Booked: Tugay, Samba, Warnock (Rovers), Sarmiento, Kotsolis, Cleyton, Fotakis (Larissa)

Attendance: 20,741