Shamrock Rovers to face Sparta Prague if they win first round of Champions League qualifying

St Pat’s to play FC Vaduz in Conference League qualifying, while tough draws await Shelbourne and Derry City should they progress

Shamrock Rovers will face Sparta Prague should they beat Vikingur Reykjavik in the first round of Champions League qualifying.

The Czech champions would provide tough opposition, having reached the last 16 of the Europa League last season.

Rovers fans would at least get a bigger ticket allocation for Sparta’s 18,887 stadium, as it was announced the club was allocated just 50 tickets for the game in Iceland due to the size of Víkingsvollur stadium.

“We have been made aware that we will receive an away allocation of 50 tickets (5 per cent) – owing to stadium capacity of 1,000,” the club said.

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The games against Vikingur will take place on July 9/10 and July 16/17, while the second round clash is to be played on July 23/24 and July 30/31.

Should Shamrock Rovers lose, they will drop down to the Conference League to play the defeated team between FK Borac Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and KF Egnatia (Albania).

Also in the Conference League, St Patrick’s Athletic will meet FC Vaduz, a Liechtenstein team who play in the Swiss league, in the second round. Derry City face a tough draw should they progress through the first round, with FC Copenhagen, who beat Manchester United last season, awaiting. Meanwhile, Shelbourne will play FC Zurich should they win their first round match.

Champions League draw second round qualifying draw:

Vikingur Reykjavík (Iceland)/Shamrock Rovers v Sparta Prague (Czech Republic)

Europa Conference League second round qualifying draw:

St Patrick’s Athletic v FC Vaduz (Liechtenstein)

FC Copenhagen (Denmark) v FCB Magpies (Gibraltar)/Derry City

FC Zürich (Switzerland) v Shelbourne/St Joseph’s (Gibraltar)

David Gorman

David Gorman

David Gorman is a sports journalist with The Irish Times