The Champions League proper might still be a little way off, but Bohemians are hardly short of incentive as they head into this evening's second-round qualifying round against Swedish champions Halmstad.

For a start, Anderlecht should provide the opposition for the winners of this tie and even the losers of that one enjoy the potentially lucrative consolation of a place in the UEFA Cup.

Having apparently mastered the trick of beating some of Europe's entry-level opponents, Pete Mahon's side will have to demonstrate a talent for applying all of their steadily stockpiled Euro know-how this evening if they are to move on to meet the Belgians.

Mahon watched the Swedish champions score a convincing 3-0 win over Obrero at the weekend but remains decidedly upbeat regarding his side's chances of progressing as his side complete their preparations for tonight's first leg which, sadly, is not scheduled to be shown by any of the country's television stations.

"They're a good side, there's no doubt about it," he said yesterday, "but if we play as well as we can do, then I have no doubt that we can beat them. Whether we can beat them by enough to make it comfortable out there is, of course, another thing."

The Bohemians boss sticks with the team that started both first-round games against Estonian champions Levadia Maardu, which means that Tony O'Connor, Dave Morrison and Dave Hill are again on the bench.

Trevor Molloy serves the last game of his three-match European suspension this evening and Mahon says that he wouldn't rule the striker out of the return leg. Mahon may not be ruling anything out in relation to the former under-21 international.

"If he performs the way he did against Aberdeen last year, or in the last 10 matches of the season, then I'd love to have Trevor around this season and I've said that to him," said Mahon yesterday, "but I've also told him that if what I'm going to get is anything like the performances in between, then that just wouldn't be acceptable. Despite that, he insists that he wants to stay so we take it from there."

For all the ease with which they beat Levadia at home, Bohemians could probably do with an in-form Molloy this evening for Halmstad look certain to provide the sort of test that, for all the recent improvement, no Irish club has managed to pass in recent years.

Tom Prahl, the Swedish team's coach, gave some hint of his side's approach when he observed after seeing the two Levadia games that while Bohemians looked good, their pace at the back might become an issue if they were being tested.

The form of Shaun Maher and Avery John certainly looks like being more of an issue this evening, for while the Swedes are only sixth in their league at the moment after a slow start, they are comfortably the division's top scorers with 29 goals from 14 games.

On their previous European travels they have been adventurous enough, most notably last season when they scored seven in Wales on the way to beating Barry Town 11-0. Two goals in Lisbon helped them to a 4-3 aggregate victory over Benfica. Their solitary effort in Munich was not quite enough to save them from a 5-4 defeat over the two legs.

Twenty-four year-old striker Michael Svensson, one of three current Swedish internationals at the club, represents the main threat to goal - he has seven this season and two in six games for his country - but they can produce goals from a number of areas and Mahon yesterday admitted to having been impressed with newly-signed left winger Samuel Wowoah.