CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SECOND QUALIFYING ROUND FIRST LEG
Shamrock Rovers v Sparta Prague, Tallaght Stadium, 7.45pm
TV
The game will be broadcast on LOITV.ie for €10.
ONLINE
A live blog can be followed on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app.
WEATHER
Another dry Dublin evening with warm temperatures of about 14 degrees at kick-off. Neither side can have any complaints.
ATTENDANCE
There will be a record European attendance in Tallaght with a sellout home crowd of over 8,000.
STEP UP IN CLASS
While last week's opponents Vikingur had international experience, Sparta really do represent a difference in quality.
They had six internationals who featured at Euro 2024 and Copa America, including two for their home nation in Jan Kuchta and Martin Vitik.
Veljko Birmancevic is their star player, scoring 16 goals last year, and featured for Serbia this summer.
Qazim Laci was in Albania's squad.
Angelo Preciado was in Copa America with Ecuador and has been linked with a €10m move to Everton.
Recent signings Imanol García (Athletic Bilbao) and Peter Vindahl (AZ Alkmaar) show they have ambitions to progress this season.
Vindahl arrived for €1.5m earlier this year.
Their most recent recruit is 23-year-old Mathias Ross on loan from Galatasaray.
Ladislav Krejci left the club earlier in the summer, joining Girona for €8m before he featured for Czechia in the Euros.
Sparta have won their own league 38 times so they are certainly a powerhouse when it comes to the qualifying rounds of European competition.
RECENT EUROPEAN EXPERIENCE
Sparta's European campaign ran all the way to March last season.
It ended in a heavy defeat to Liverpool in the Europa League but to progress to the last 16 was a good achivement.
They've beaten Celtic and Rangers in recent seasons and anything but group stage Europa League football will represent a major failure.
Sparta come into Europe relatively fresh as well.
They just played their first league clash of the season with 2 -1 home success over against Pardubice.
TEAM NEWS
Estonian midfielder Markus Poom is back for the home side. Rory Gaffney has a few more weeks on the sidelines.
Aaron McEneff and Graham Burke will return for the away leg.
HOOPS REMAIN CONFIDENT
It was far from ideal for Shamrock Rovers to prepare for this game with an FAI Cup defeat to rivals Bohemians.
It's difficult to balance all three competitions at this time of year and the changes Stephen Bradley made did little to ignite a performance.
A late rally failed to materialise despite the likes of Johnny Kenny coming off the bench.
Full-back Trevor Clarke does not want to dwell on the cup exit going into a game against such strong opponents.
He told RTÉ Sport: "Sparta Prague have a big reputation, I think they did well last year in the competition going out against Liverpool. It's a great opposition to come up against so it's going to be a massive game in Tallaght and I think we always do well against teams at home, so it's a really good game to look forward to.
"Obviously it hurts [to lose in the FAI Cup], it's not nice to lose any game at all, let alone be the second round of the Cup against Bohs away. We can't get ourselves too down about it.
"Obviously we have a big game tonight and we have a lot of games coming thick and fast after that, so we just have to put that into the back of the mind and focus on this tie."
EUROPA CUSHIONS
It's well documented that winning last week's tie sets up a summer of European games for the Hoops.
Stephen Bradley denied that will be in the back of their mind approaching this tie.
Sparta will be very strongly fancied to go through.
If the Hoops do go out, they will drop into the Europa League. After yesterday's draw, the state of play is:
Champions League third round qualifying draw:
- Winner of Shamrock Rovers or Sparta Prague v Winner of Steaua Bucharest or Maccabi Tel Aviv
Europa League third round quaifying draw:
- Loser of NK Celje or Slovan Bratislava v Loser of Shamrock Rovers v Sparta Prague
That is not a bad place to be for the Hoops with over €1.7m secured in prize money.
The draw could have been kinder for the third rounds. That is for another day, however.
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