Uefa Conference League second qualifying round, second leg: Kalju (Estonia) 2 (Esono 49, Jabi 75) Shelbourne 1 (Kelly 14) (Shelbourne win 6-4 on agg)Shelbourne are set to become only the second Irish club to play Ajax in competitive European football, bridging a 39-year gap to when Dundalk welcomed a Johan Cruyff-managed side that included Frank Stapleton to Oriel Park in 1987.The Dutch giants, should they beat FK Vojvodina as expected from a 4-1 aggregate first leg lead, would host the Drumcondra men at the Cruyff Arena in the south-eastern suburbs of Amsterdam next Thursday.Shelbourne are quietly confident that the Uefa Conference League third round, second-leg on August 13th will be held at Tolka Park.The blockbuster tie is a timely boost in a season when Shels are barely competing with Dublin rivals Bohemians and St Patrick’s Athletic, never mind troubling Shamrock Rovers for the league title.The misery has been non-stop. They were bounced out of the FAI Cup by Kerry FC, a week into the John Russell era, having cut ties with Joey O’Brien in June. Next, their best player Harry Wood signed for Stockport County in the third tier of English football. All the while, they have struggled to cope with an alarming list of injuries.The luck of the draw offers Shelbourne a shot at the four-time European Cup winners, albeit a far lesser version of the Ajax that invented Total Football in the 1970s, unleashed Marco van Basten in the 1980s and beat a star-studded AC Milan in the 1995 Champions League final with brilliant technical players like Marc Overmars, Edgar Davids and Jari Litmanen.The club has been in a steady decline since Overmars returned as technical director with the former winger forced to resign in 2022 after sending inappropriate messages and photographs to several women employees. Fifa subsequently banned him from any involvement in the game for at least a year.Jordi Cruyff, son of Johan, was appointed as technical director in February and they finished fifth in the Eredivisie last season, four points above Troy Parrott’s AZ Alkmaar.Shelbourne made hard work of their trip to Tallinn. Carrying a 5-2 lead from the first-leg, any doubt about a spectacular collapse in the Estonian capital was allayed by Dan Kelly’s early goal and the first-half red card for Kalju’s Ukrainian midfielder Oleksandr Musolitin.The goal summed up the level of football as Kalju goalkeeper Henri Perk fumbled Kerr McInroy’s speculative shot, inviting Kelly to finish and run to a few hundred travelling fans basking in the Baltic sunshine.Jóhan Hendrik Ellefsen, the referee from the Faroe Islands, took his time before sending off Musolitin following a collision with Evan Caffrey.Russell took no chances at half-time, making three changes as skipper Paddy Barrett, Rodrigo Freitas and Kelly made way for Will Jarvis, Odhran Casey and teenager Dan Ring.Leading 6-2 on aggregate, Shels looked safe, although second-half goals from Enrique Esono and Ibrahim Jabar exposed familiar failings by the team Russell has inherited.Both centre halves, Kameron Ledwidge and Casey, made mistakes to invite Esono to beat new goalkeeper Eddie Beach four minutes after the break.Ajax will have taken notice of Jabir’s free header from a corner in the 75th minute. Casey lost his man before deflecting the ball beyond Beach.Kalju: Perk; Mashchenko (Sotsugov 46), Podholjuzin, Vukusic, Borolinstsikov (Nikolajev 67); Siht, Musolitin, Vastsuk (Tambedou 74), Baptista (Ivanov 62); Orlov (Jabir 62), Esono.Shelbourne: Beach, Mbeng, Ledwidge, Barrett (Casey 46), Norris (Gannon 73); Kelly (Jarvis 46), McInroy (Lunney 62), Coote; Caffrey, Freitas (Ring 46), Moore.Referee: Jóhan Hendrik Ellefsen (Faroe Islands).