Mustafa Amini made his first competitive appearance for Randers on Thursday, helping the Danish club to avoid an upset away from home in the first round of UEFA Europa League qualifying.

The former Central Coast Mariners prodigy, who left Borussia Dortmund at the end of last season, played the full game of the first leg away to minnows Sant Julia of Andorra.

The 22-year-old supplied the corner that led to the only goal as Randers emerged with a 1-0 victory, despite finishing the game with nine men.

Amini stars in Randers debut

Amini operated on the right of midfield in a 4-4-2 formation and was denied a good scoring opportunity early in the match when he was played in by team-mate Nicolai Brock-Madsen, only for a last-ditch challenge to snuff out the danger.

"He has sent in some good crosses from corners and when he has the ball, things happen," Henrik Axel Buchter, a journalist for Randers Amtsavis, said of the Australian's performance."He looks exciting.

"The few things we have seen from Musti in open play have been exciting."

Amini's Australian team-mate Jack Duncan, who has joined Randers from Perth Glory, was an unused substitute.

Viktor Lundberg was shown his marching orders as early as the 17th minute after an incident involving an opponent who threw himself to the floor, with the referee apparently deeming Randers' Swedish forward to be guilty of a head butt.

Jeppe Tverskov followed Lundberg in making an early exit in the 81st minute when he was shown a second yellow card.

Elsewhere, Socceroos defender Tomislav Mrcela was also involved in Europa League action overnight with his Lokomotiva Zagreb outfit securing a hard-fought win away from home.

The Croatian club trailed 1-0 at the break against Airbus UK Broughton of Wales but surged home after the break to come away with a 3-1 win.

Mrcela, who was called into his first Socceroos squad for last month’s World Cup qualifier against Kyrgyzstan, played a full match for Lokomotiva.

In friendly action, winger Ben Halloran played 45 minutes for his new club FC Heidenheim, scoring once in their 17-0 thrashing of SV Heldenfingen.