Krasnodor crash on Swiss soil

St Gallen opened their Europa League account with goals from Goran Karanovic and Marco Mathys against 10-man Kuban Krasnodor.

St Gallen make perfect start to European campaign

St Gallen opened their Europa League Group A account with goals from Goran Karanovic and Marco Mathys against 10-man Kuban Krasnodor. Karanovic opened the scoring for the Swiss side after 56 minutes and Mathys added a second after 77 before the Russian side had Charles Kabore dismissed for a second booking in injury time. After a slow start St Gallen forced a corner but when the delivery came in from Roberto Rodriguez to the near post the ball was cleared by Kuban's Angel Dealbert. Gheorghe Bucur shot over the bar for the visitors before Mario Mutsch saw his effort caught by Aleksandr Belenov. The first booking of the game was picked up by Kuban's Aleksei Kozlov forn a foul on St Gallen's Ermir Lenjani. The home side's Ivan Martic went closest to breaking the deadlock with a long-range shot which hit the bar. Martic then set up Rodriguez who shot wide before seeing Belenov save his next effort. St Gallen's Philippe Montandon headed wide with the first chance of the second half before Kuban's Ivelin Popov volleyed off target before another effort was blocked by St Gallen's Daniel Lopar. But with just over 10 minutes into the second half St Gallen took the lead when Rodriguez's cross was blocked by Belenov but Karanovic converted the rebound from close range. Karanovic saw another shot blocked by Belenov before firing an effort off target. With 15 minutes to go, Kabore fouled Mathys, picking up his first caution. Dejan Janjatovic's free-kick found Mathys who converted with a shot from inside the six-yard box. And to round things off, two minutes into stoppage time Kuban were reduced to 10 men when Kabore was dismissed for a second bookable offence for a foul on Mutsch.