Preview: Uefa Europa Conference League (second round, 2nd legs)
KuPS (1) v Derry City (2) 5pm
Dundalk (1) v KA Akureyri (3) 7.45pm
Shamrock Rovers (0) v Ferencváros (4) 8pm
Trailing KA Akureyri of Iceland 3-1, Dundalk go in pursuit of a little piece of history at Oriel Park tonight with no League of Ireland side having overturned a first leg deficit of two goals in Europe.
While Derry City can harbour some quiet confidence in taking a 2-1 lead to Finland to face KuPS, Shamrock Rovers host Hungarian giants Ferencváros all but out having been beaten 4-0 in Budapest last week.
“We’ve spoken about it and it could be a special night,” said Dundalk manager Stephen O’Donnell of his side’s hopes of progressing.
“It could be a night where you look back and think ‘what a night that was’, but we’ve got a lot of hard work and a big task for that to happen. But we also know that it’s possible that it could happen. It’s what we worked hard for last season.
“We’re going to need Oriel at its bouncing best and we’re looking forward to the task ahead.”
Republic of Ireland international winger Daryl Horgan, whom the club re-signed on a free transfer yesterday, is ineligible to feature this evening as O’Donnell goes with the same squad used in Reykjavik last week.
Should Dundalk get through, their likely third round opponents would be Belgians Club Brugge who lead Aarhus 3-0 ahead of the return in Denmark.
Derry City progressing would set up a meeting with either Swiss side FC Basel or Tobol Kostanay, with the latter leading 3-1 ahead of the second leg in Kazakhstan.
“What’s the point of getting on the flight if we don’t think that,” said Derry manager Ruaidhri Higgins on their desire to win through. “We’ve set it up for ourselves and it guarantees us a fighting chance.
“The belief the players have gained from the first-leg performance will stand to us. We won’t go into the game to defend our 18-yard box because I don’t think we’re capable of doing that, it’s not us. We’ll go there and try to play with the energy and intensity that we showed in the second half last week and just try to be positive.”
With notions of overturning the tie somewhat unrealistic, redemption for Shamrock Rovers must come from their performance at Tallaght Stadium, insists midfielder Dylan Watts.
There will thus be no likely repeat for Rovers of last year’s run to the group stages having bowed out of the Champions League in the first round to Icelandic side Breiðablik bringing an immediate drop into Uefa’s third tier competition.
If Rovers losing to Breiðablik was something of a surprise, Ferencváros’s 3-0 defeat at home to Faroese side Klaksvík ranked as the shock of the round. Rovers duly felt the full brunt of a wounded animal last week.
“That’s it,” agreed midfielder Watts on the need for the morale boost of a win tonight, similar to beating Ferencváros 1-0 with an Andy Lyons goal last year after a 4-0 away leg defeat in the play-off round of the Europa League.
“First and foremost, it’s about putting in a good performance. We know it’s going to be an incredibly difficult task to turn it around, but I think we need to look after the performance first and foremost and see where that takes us.”
Doing so has been made no easier with manager Bradley having to again plan without talisman Jack Byrne who was in London this week seeing a specialist on a knee injury.
Also still out injured are wingers Neil Farrugia and Trevor Clarke, midfielder Darragh Nugent, along with chief striker Rory Gaffney. Defender Lee Grace is also a doubt.
