SOCCER/EUROPA LEAGUE/Juventus (2) v Shamrock Rovers (0):IN WHAT could be a defining week for the club, with Sunday's vital league clash with Bohemians to come, Shamrock Rovers still wouldn't swap their Europa League adventure for anything.
“Potentially, yes,” agreed manager Michael O’Neill on the implications this week’s football may have on Rovers’ season. “But, ultimately we’ll not know that until October or November.
“We can’t really dwell on it and we can’t analyse that too much. There’ll still be 12 games left in the league after Sunday’s game. We’ll have enough time should things not go our way.
“It’s been fantastic for the club financially and the whole experience has been fantastic for us to host one of the great European clubs in Tallaght. I don’t think it’s something anyone would trade for an easier life in terms of the league campaign.
“We’re more than happy to deal with this. The reality is we wouldn’t trade this experience for anything.”
With both striker Thomas Stewart and winger Billy Dennehy having shaken off knocks suffered in last Sunday’s 3-3 draw at Sporting Fingal, O’Neill has a full squad (excluding the injured Pat Sullivan and Dessie Baker, who didn’t travel) available.
He is, nonetheless, likely to make changes with Sunday in mind with the possibility he may leave leading scorer Gary Twigg on the bench.
With Juventus already 2-0 up from the first leg, O’Neill stressed he just wants his players to go out and show belief and do themselves justice at the Stadio Braglia in Modena tonight.
“It will be difficult, but the aim is to get a victory,” he said. “(But) we’re not under any illusion. The quality Juve have and the cost to assemble it and cost of individual players.
“It’s a different planet from the environment we operate in. We have to have belief. We never gave ourselves a chance to get that when losing an early goal in the first game.
“We have to be patient, we have to recognise the quality of the system. When we changed the system to 4-4-2 we had a period of the game where we had the upper hand.
“It’ll be difficult to score, but we’ll aim to do that. There’s no expectation on us. Sometimes, that’s a nice position to be in.
“It’ll be a good experience to play away from home against opposition of this quality, and it can only add to players’ game knowledge and education to play them at this level.”
Despite their first-leg advantage, Juventus are taking nothing for granted and are wary of Rovers, particularly the threat they may pose from set-pieces.
“It is true, (Shamrock Rovers) is physically very strong, especially from corners,” said midfielder Claudio Marchisio. “They can prove to be difficult for our defence.
“They have a very good opportunity. I’m sure they want to prove that they can play well against Juventus. To prove that to themselves and their fans.”
Juventus coach Luigi Del Neri yesterday named a 20-man squad for the game but Liverpool target Christian Poulsen was not included.
