Uefa Europa League (third qualifying round, second leg): Shamrock Rovers (0) v NK Celje (1) (Tallaght Stadium, 8.0)
Uefa Conference League (third qualifying round, second leg): Sabah (0) v St Patrick’s Athletic (1) (5.0)
Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley won’t countenance the notion of tonight’s Europa League third round, second leg with Celje being a ‘free hit’ that holds the safety net of a parachute into the play-off round of the Conference League.
Overturn a 1-0 deficit against the Slovenian champions and Rovers will face Greek side PAOK of Thessaloniki in the play-off round of the second tier competition, a side they met in the group stage when qualifying for the first time in 2011.
It would also guarantee the group stage of the Conference League (should they lose to PAOK) and with it guaranteed minimum Uefa prize money of approximately €4 million.
Conversely, the losers tonight will face a long trek in the play-off round of the Conference League qualifiers against either Ordabasy of Kazakhstan or Pyunik of Armenia, with the latter holding a 1-0 lead in advance of their second leg in Yerevan.
“I do hate that, I really do hate that,” stressed Bradley of there being a reprieve of sorts for losing tonight. I hate what it means and I hate the mentality around it, we’re here to win the game.
“We went to Sparta [Prague] to win the game. When you look at the Sparta leg, we gave away awful goals against a team who qualified last night [for the Champions League play-off round]. A top team. But we were right in the tie and it’s the same with this one.
“We were not thinking ‘go to Sparta, free-hit and then we have another one’. We genuinely were going to win the game and that is going to be the same against Celje.
“Get to Tallaght, hopefully make it a big crowd and hopefully make it a horrible place for them to come and play. Our full focus is on trying to win the game.
“You look at the Armenian side who are 1-0 up, I think they have seven Brazilians. If you think you can look at this as a free-hit, and that is your fall back, you are in trouble. You can’t think like that, you have to focus on this. This is a winnable tie.
“If we know we’re at our best we can win and that will be our focus. Nothing else.”
Due to travel and having playing in sapping heat on a dreadful pitch, Rovers made six changes for last Sunday’s league game with Drogheda United following their narrow defeat in Celje last Thursday. But they expect to be back to near full strength tonight, though Johnny Kenny remains out injured along with fellow striker Rory Gaffney while new signing Marc McNulty is ineligible.
With a large attendance expected, Bradley has implored Rovers fans to get right behind his side.
“We need them,” said Bradley. “We saw how important they were against Vikingur, especially when Jack [Byrne] got sent off, you could see the energy they gave us.
“At times against Sparta, when they controlled the game, we needed them and it will be the same tonight.
“They are a good team and if we get the numbers I think we can have a special night and get one of our goals this year which is group stage football. Our fans will be a massive part of that.”
Meanwhile, St Patrick’s Athletic have travelled through three time zones to defend a 1-0 lead against Sabah of Azerbaijan in their Conference League third qualifying round, second leg.
St Patrick’s minimum guaranteed prize money for reaching the play-off round, and a shot at the group stages, would stand at €1.275 million, up from €900,000 should they go out tonight.
“It’s a big challenge,” stressed St Pat’s manager Stephen Kenny in advance of what will be his 50th game in European club competition.
“We saw Qarabag getting a convincing result in Europe last night and Sabah will be looking to push Qarabag [their domestic rivals] this year, having finished third last year. They have a huge amount of resources and have a multinational team.
“From our point of view, the players were brilliant in the first leg. We would have liked to add to our lead, and deserved to.
“It will be a different game over here for sure. We’re going into a tough arena and we have to make sure we play to the level we know we can and back ourselves to carry an attacking threat and try to score.”
The winners meet either FC Iberia of Georgia or Istanbul Basaksehir, the Turkish side with home advantage tonight having won the first leg 1-0.
