Europa League qualifying wrap: First up victory for Fulham

Fulham were made to work for their 3-0 Europa League first-leg qualifier win against NSI Runavik on Thursday.

Martin Jol’s side were expected to have little trouble from their first round opponents, but the Faroe Islands side mounted a good fight and the contest was not settled until after the hour-mark.

Irish winger Damien Duff netted the opener after 33 minutes to hand the Cottagers a slender lead heading into half-time.

But it was not until a 10-minute period in the second half before the contest was really decided.

NSI continued to battle away and they made things difficult for Fulham until Helgi Petersen conceded a penalty on 61 minutes.

Danny Murphy stepped up to the spot and buried the opportunity from 12 yards before Andy Johnson sealed the result with Fulham’s third goal, 20 minutes from time.

In other matches, Norwegian giants Tromso thumped Latvia’s FC Daugava Daugavpils 5-0 away from home.

Magnus Andersen bagged a double for Tromso who are now certainties to progress to the second round.

Hungarian club Ferencvaros cruised to a 3-0 win over Armenian club Ulisses while Metalurgi Rustavi, Qarabag, Rad, Rabotnicki, Elfsborg, Aalesund, Dinamo Tbilisi, Varazdin, Spartak Trnava, Paksi SE, IBV, KR, Renova, Jagiellonia Bialystok, Vllaznia Shkoder and Flamurtari Viore all recorded first-leg wins.

Draws were played out between Olimpik-Suvelan and Minsk, Honka and Kalju, The New Saints and Cliftonville, UN Kaerjeng and Hacken, Koper and Shakhter Karagandy and Siroki Brijeg and Olimpija, with all the second legs to be played on July 7.