Linfield kicked off their UEFA Europa Conference League campaign off with a superb 3-1 first leg victory over Albanian side KF Vllaznia at Windsor Park.

The Blues set their stall out early on, threatening through headers from Daniel Finlayson and Matthew Fitzpatrick while Chris McKee failed to keep a volley from going over the top.

Scoreless at the break, Linfield eventually found a way through just before the hour when Kyle McClean's run into the box caused problems for the visiting defence before, after a scramble, McKee direct the ball home from close range.

McKee then doubled his tally midway through the second half after pouncing on a poor clearance and combining with Joel Cooper to blast home a volley.

Linfield's third arrived with just over ten minutes remaining after McKee turned provider to tee up Jack Scott to burst into the box and find confidently find the bottom corner.

David Healy's side were reduced to ten men with a couple of minutes to go following Finlayson's second caution of the evening for a foul. Then, from the free-kick that followed, Marko Juric bagged a consolation for the visitors to hand them some hope ahead of next week's return leg in Albania.