Ten-man Cliftonville secured a 2-2 draw with St Joseph's at the Europa Point Stadium despite leading twice in the first leg of their Europa Conference qualifier.

Ryan Curran's headed goal after 39 minutes gave Cliftonville the lead at the break but, 10 minutes after the restart, the away side were reduced to 10 men when Jack Keaney was shown a red card and Alvaro Rey converted the resulting spot-kick.

Jonny Addis put the Reds ahead again from the spot with 12 minutes to go, but Rey levelled the game for a second time just five minutes later.

The second leg of the qualifier will take place next Thursday, 17 July at Solitude.

Cliftonville's Lewis Ridd was the busier stopper in the early stages of the game in Gibraltar and made a diving save to thwart Alvaro Rey's shot from the edge of the box.

The home side continued to enjoy more of the early possession but centre-forwards Adrian Armental and Pablo Rodrigues were both unable to keep efforts on target.

St Joseph's keeper Bradley Banda was then called into action for the first time when he rushed off his line to try and stop Joe Gormley from having a shot. However, his attempted clearance fell to Rory Hale, whose cross was fired over the crossbar by Curran.

With just over five minutes to go until the break, Cliftonville opened the scoring when Curran rushed forward and nodded home a well-timed free-kick from Hale into the box.

Cliftonville were awarded another free-kick shortly after, but Hale was unable to keep his shot on target.

In first-half added time, a superb block from Keaney denied Facundo Alvarez's as the home side pushed for an equaliser before the break.

It was a far from ideal start to the second half for Cliftonville with the home side awarded a penalty when Keaney was adjudged to have denied Pablo Rodriguez a goalscoring opportunity and Keaney given his marching orders for the foul on 54 minutes.

Rey took the resulting spot-kick and fired into the bottom right-hand corner after Ridd had dived the wrong way.

St Joseph's tried to make the extra man count with Manuel Sanchez's header crashing off the crossbar and Juanma's stunning effort from 30 yards striking the left-hand post.

In the 77th minute, Cliftonville were awarded a spot-kick of their own after substitute Eric McWoods shot struck the arm of Ethan Jolley with Addis coolly slotting home to give ten-man visitors the lead once again.

However, Abraham Paz's side continued to push with Rey's free-kick punched away by Ridd as the striker looked for his second goal of the evening.

And Rey would double his tally and level the game once again on 83 minutes when he headed home Leon Volz's deflected cross.

St Joseph's continued to push until the final whistle, but the Reds defended resolutely to set up an exciting second leg at Solitude next week.