Floriana suffered a heavy 8-0 defeat in Sweden yesterday against strong opponents IF Elsborg, also in the first leg of the first qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League.

Lacking adequate preparation, with a sqaud of only 15 players, which included no foreigners, Floriana were further handicapped by the dismissal of defender Tyrone Farrugia after only 26 minutes in a penalty incident. By then, Floriana were already trailing by three goals as Elsborg scored their fourth from the penalty spot and before halftime they were five goals to the good.

The Swedish league leaders hit three more times in the second half with Niklas Hult scoring a hat-trick.

Hibernians meanwhile looked likely to obtain a respectable result against Macedonian side FK Sarajevo of Bosnia. The Maltese side were leading 2-1, just past the half hour, with goals from Jean Paul Farrugia after 20 minutes and Rodolfo Soares on 33 minutes.

Sarajevo managed to draw level in the first half’s added time.

And when Soares was sent off ten minutes into the second half, for fouling Husejinovic inside the area, Sarajevo scored three more goals through Karamatic (penalty), Hadzic and Tatamirov to make Hibernians’ task extremely difficult for the return leg next week.