Champions League draw: Shelbourne will head into Wednesday's second leg of their Champions League qualifier against Croatia's Hajduk Split with plenty to play for after yesterday's draw for the first round proper handed the winners of the tie a meeting with Spanish giants Deportivo La Coruna.
The Irish club trail Hajduk 3-2 from the first leg of the qualifying-round game but the two away goals they scored this week could provide them with the basis for progression to a highly lucrative meeting with one of the tournament's bigger names.
After seeing the draw made yesterday, club chief executive Ollie Byrne declined to speculate on how much such a tie would be worth to the Dubliners, insisting everyone at Tolka Park would be concentrating their energies on the Croatians.
"We have a very tough match on Wednesday against a very good team and if you were a betting man," said Byrne, "you'd probably be inclined to back Hajduk Split to go through. What we need is the Dublin public to really get behind the club, to come along on Wednesday and help us get through to the next round by winning this game. If we do manage that we'll have the time to consider how exciting the prospect of meeting a team like Deportivo is for all of us."
Byrne confirmed in the event Shelbourne progress the club would seek to give priority to supporters who turn up this week when it comes to selling tickets for the Deportivo game.
"We haven't quite worked out how we will do it but it will be something along the lines of people keeping their stubs. The important thing is that people are rewarded if they've helped us go through this week."
Byrne said he was not on a "commercial mission" while in Nyon for yesterday's draw but there were preliminary discussions with representatives of the Spanish side about reversing the tie so the Dubliners would be at home first, an arrangement that would be likely to be of substantial benefit to Shelbourne.
"I talked to them about it and while there was a bit of a language barrier they didn't seem to have any objections to the idea."
Deportivo board member Jesús Rebollo sounded unperturbed by the prospect of a visit to Ireland, observing after the draw, "Deportivo are favourites in such matches and it is likely we will cause our opponents more problems than they can cause us. We would prefer to play Shelbourne because we are more familiar with Irish football and it suits our game better. Hajduk would be a very tough nut to crack."
The Spaniards, who finished third in La Liga last season and boast a number of Spanish and South American international stars like Fran, Diego Tristan and Mauro Silva, will, however, start as clear favourites regardless of who they end up playing.
It is estimated if Shelbourne could get through to face the Spaniards the club would make upwards of €350,000 from the ties between prize money, television rights, gate receipts and sponsorship. The winners of the tie will go forward to the competition's group stages while the one eliminated will not, as in previous seasons, go into the UEFA Cup.
The British teams in yesterday's draw all appear to have reasonably straightforward tasks ahead of them as they too seek places in the group stages.
Manchester United were handed a meeting with either MSK Zilina or Dinamo Bucharest (Dinamo won 1-0 in Slovakia this week) while Liverpool, who are also away first, will face Grazer AK of Austria. Rangers will face a potentially more tricky trip to Russia if CSKA Moscow capitalise on the 0-0 draw they secured in Azerbaijan and progress against PFC Neftchi.
"It could have been tougher, but it could also have been easier," said Rangers manager Alex McLeish. "It will be a hard tie and we have to respect whoever we get. We know what Russian teams can do. FC Lokomotiv Moskva did well in the Champions League last year. But we have a stronger, quicker and more physical team than we did last year."
The first legs of the ties will be played on August 10th and 11th with the return matches scheduled for two weeks later.
DRAW: Graz AK (Aus) v Liverpool; Juventus (Ita) v Djurgarden (Swe) or Kaunas (Lit); SK Tirana (Alb) or Ferencvaros (Hun) v APOEL Nicosia (Cyp) or Sparta Prague (Cze); Rosenborg Trondheim (Nor) or Sheriff Tiraspol (Mol) v Maccabi Haifa (Isr); Bayer Leverkusen (Gery) v Banik Ostrava (Cze); Neftchi Baku (Aze) or CSKA Moscow (Rus) v Rangers; Pyunik (Arm) or Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukr) v Club Bruges (Bel) or Lokomotiv Plovdiv (Bul); Dynamo Kiev (Ukr) v Skonto Riga (Lat) or Trabzonspor (Tur); Young Boys (Swi) or Red Star Belgrade (Ser & Mon) v PSV Eindhoven (Net); Zilina (Slo) or Dinamo Bucharest (Rom) v Manchester United; Basel (Swi) v Inter Milan (Ita); Benfica (Por) v Anderlecht (Bel); Deportivo Coruna (Spa) v Hajduk Split (Cro) or Shelbourne; PAOK Salonika (Gre) v HJK Helsinki (Fin) or Maccabi Tel Aviv (Isr); Nova Gorica (Slov) or FC Copenhagen (Den) v Monaco (Fra); WIT Georgia Tbilisi (Geo) or Wisla Krakow (Pol) v Real Madrid (Spa)
Second qualifying round, second leg matches to be played August 4th. Third qualifying round, first leg ties to be played August 10th and 11th, second legs August 24th and 25th.
