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Blackburn were able to play with calmness and confidence from the start and after Santa Cruz's fifth minute goal Rovers never looked back.

In the fourth minute of the game Jason Roberts, who kept his place ahead of youngster Matt Derbyshire, found himself in acres of space but his shot was well saved by MyPa keeper Janne Korhonen and the rebound was skewed horribly wide by Morten Gamst Pedersen.

But Blackburn did not have to wait much longer to take the lead, just one minute in fact, as Santa Cruz, making his first start for the club in place of the injured Benni McCarthy, used his power and pace to run straight through the MyPa defence and hammer a left footed shot across the keeper, capping his 26th birthday with a goal.

Rovers passed the ball around neatly in the first half but a lack of quality in the final third stopped them from adding to their slender advantage. Rovers won corner after corner but Bentley disappointed with his delivery, which all too often found the first man.

MyPa defended well and on a couple of occasions looked to catch Blackburn on the break. In the 13th minute Tuomas Kuparinen burst forward and but for being narrowly caught offside the midfielder would have been one-on-one with Brad Friedel. Later in the half a deep cross from the right had the Rovers defence panicking but there was no one in the Blackburn box to convert the chance.

The hosts enjoyed a good start to the second half as they began to play with greater confidence. Two corners in the opening five minutes of the second period had the English visitors back pedalling but MyPa lacked the quality needed to apply the telling touch and often opted for a speculative long range effort.

A Blackburn counter attack in the 50th minute summed up the match as they broke through Santa Cruz. The Paraguayan found Bentley on the right but the midfielder's feeble cross was easily cleared.

Blackburn nearly saw their lead doubled on the half hour mark as Toni Huttunen chested back in the direction of his keeper but he missed his target and the ball trickled just wide of the keeper's right hand-post. The home side were suddenly at sixes and sevens at the back and again almost scored an own goal moments later when Eero Peltonen sliced viciously towards the far corner of Korhonen's goal.

That proved to be the closest either team came to a second half goal. Tugay's arrival in the 73rd minute helped Blackburn to get a hold of the game in midfield as they cruised towards a first leg victory.

Duncan McMath / Eurosport