Stephen Kenny knows his side's Europa League draw isn't sprinkled with the star dust required to give them top billing in the Aviva Stadium, but he warned that Group D is studded with serious pedigree.
As the dust settles on the Lilywhites' Champions League near-miss and subsequent entry into the group stages of Europe's second-tier competition, Kenny has talked up the pedigree of their three opponents.
There was the possibility they could have landed Manchester United, Inter Milan or Roma, but the draw in Monaco pitted the SSE Aitricity Premier Division champions against Zenit, AZ Alkmaar and Maccabi Tel-Aviv.
Kenny said landing one of the glamour clubs would have come with obvious benefits, but he's relishing the chance to go toe to toe with the Russians in particular.
"For us the pinnacle was to qualify for the Europa League competition"
“They’re all great clubs in their own right; it’s a very exciting prospect," he told RTÉ Radio 1's Saturday Sport.
“You have to play your matches in one venue – so we would have had to play them all at the Aviva or all in Tallaght. That’s the deal.
"If we’d drawn a Manchester United or an Inter Milan we might have had all our games at the Aviva which would have been terrific in terms of the possibility of getting a huge crowd at all your matches, which is really what you want.
"I feel that’s what the players deserve, but the other side of it is, although all those clubs are great, Zenit St Petersburg are a massive club in Russia. It’s a serious club, having won the Europa League and the resources that they have."
It's been an incredible journey for Dundalk. They pushed Legia Warsaw to the pins of their collars in the Champions League play-off and the sting of defeat was soothed by their Europa League group stage entry.
Kenny has not lost sight of that achievement. "For us the pinnacle was to qualify for the Europa League competition; that was a huge dream for us to do that," he added.
"It’s a very exciting draw for us. We know that two teams qualify out of the group. In these four-team groups with two through the margins can be very narrow so we have to try and get some points on the board."
