Head to head

Almost two-and-a-half years ago, Shamrock Rovers met Molde in the old-school group stages of this Conference League competition and it was one-sided at least when it came to the scoreboard as the Norwegians won 3-0 at the Aker Stadion before winning 2-0 at Tallaght Stadium a week later.

It wasn't the first time a LOI side encountered Molde. A couple of years earlier they beat Dundalk home and away in the Europa League group stages by a 5-2 aggregate score and in the 2013-14 Champions League qualifiers, they beat Sligo Rovers 3-0 over two legs.

There's a bit of uncertainty though about how potent Molde will be given they only scraped into the knockout phases by the bare minimum, while they also lost a friendly to St Pat's on 1 February. However, their new manager Per-Mathias Hogmo is vastly experienced at club and international level, having managed both Norway's men's and women's national teams.