After the madness for the first two-thirds of the League of Ireland season, it’s great to have European football back.
All four of our clubs performed well this week and are all in with a shout of making the next rounds of their respective competitions.
Cork City must score in Warsaw against Legia, but if they do, it gives them a great opportunity in the second round of the Champions League qualifiers after their 1-0 defeat at a packed Turners Cross on Tuesday.
Many, including myself, fancied Dundalk to score more than one away goal in Estonia but they’ll be happy enough to take a narrow lead over Levadia Tallinn thanks to Dylan Connolly’s goal.
Derry City were dead and buried at this stage last season, having lost 6-1 away to Danish side Midtjylland in their away leg before a 4-1 loss confirmed a sad European exit.
Their 2-0 defeat at the Brandywell against Dinamo Misnk means they have a lot of work to do in the away leg, but they do have goals in their team, they’ll need to ensure they don’t concede next week or it will be mission impossible.
Shamrock Rovers were hugely impressive in the first-half against a below par AIK Stockholm and despite not creating too many chances, were unlucky to lose the game 1-0. Stephen Bradley and his players will believe they can put in a similar positive performance next week.
City Champions League Dream
I spent Tuesday night with the France vs Belgium World Cup semi-final on one screen and Cork City’s match against Legia Warsaw on the iPad.
As expected, John Caulfield's side sat deep and allowed the Polish side to have a lot of the ball, but the visitors could only muster three shots on target over the course of the 90 minutes.
One of those was the winner from 30 yards or more with just 12 minutes left.
Cork themselves could only test the Legia goalkeeper once, and they’ll need to do better in the second leg on Tuesday.
The question I was asking myself was, would City carry more of a threat with Kieran Sadlier in the starting team?
He’s one of the best players in the league and was on the bench in the first leg.
I can see the reasons Caulfield went for a more defensive and workmanlike like team, but he could have found room for the former Sligo Rovers man.
Robbie Benson’s famous goal had Dundalk within seconds of a 1-0 win in Warsaw two years ago, before they were pegged back by the hosts.
That will give Cork hope but they’ll need to be more creative and also be as disciplined from a defensive point of view, Damian Delaney’s experience will be key in what will be a hostile environment.
They’ll hope goalkeeper Mark McNulty recovers from his ankle injury but no League of Ireland club will have a better deputy than Peter Cherrie.
Cork of course have the back-up plan of a bye into the Europa League third qualifying round, even if they are knocked out by Legia, so all is not lost either way.
Advantage Dundalk
Dundalk navigated the proverbial ‘banana skin’ with a 1-0 win in Estonia thanks to Dylan Connolly’s goal seven minutes into the second-half.
Connolly’s pace caused Levadia Talinn problems throughout and he should have scored at least once more, which would have been a huge plus for Stephen Kenny heading into the second-leg.
The slender lead means the Lilywhites will need to be vigilant in the return leg.
Levadia team had more shots at goal, more shots on target and more corners than the League of Ireland’s top team which will also be a slight concern.
The Louth side have conceded just 12 goals in their 25 league games and they’ll need to keep their defence just as tight next week.
Dundalk will be confident of seeing the job off however, and with the likes of Ronan Murray and new signing Georgie Kelly to spring from the bench, they should have enough to navigate their path to the next round.
Unlucky Rovers
Shamrock Rovers will feel somewhat hard done by to travel to Sweden with a loss.
The Hoops dominated much of the first-half with new signing Dylan Watts, making his competitive debut, the star of the show.
His touch, vision and overall technical play really impressed the home fans and his long-range volley was probably as close as Stephen Bradley’s team came to getting the breakthrough.
AIK improved towards the end of the first-half and pinned Rovers back for much of the second period, eventually scoring with an excellent passing move with a quarter of an hour left on the clock.
Young goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu (above) - it's easy to forget he is just 16 years old such is his composure - conceded his first ever goal in senior football having kept four cleans sheets in a row.
He again exuded confidence behind the Rovers defence his performance justified Bradley’s decision to pick him ahead of the experienced Alan Mannus, who has yet to make his second debut for the club in a competitive match.
Aaron Greene made his return as a second-half sub, and they’ll be looking to him and Dan Carr to provide the away goal they need in Stockholm next week.
Improved Derry
It was pretty much a nightmare start for Derry City at the Brandywell. They went 1-0 down after just two minutes, and key man Rory Hale went off injured immediately afterwards.
They had to defend for much of the game and goalkeeper Ger Doherty had to save six of Minsk’s 17 shots at goal. In truth they were probably lucky to concede only two, especially considering Conor McDermott’s red card with nine minutes remaining
At the other end of the pitch, they desperately need goals.
They’ve scored 39 times in their 25 league games, the third best in the league and they’ll need all of their attacking threats in this one, which could leave them open to counter attacks.
It's a tall order, but like manager Kenny Shiels alluded to post-match, an early goal and anything could happen.
Hope
All of the results went as expected really, with Dundalk winning and our other three clubs coming out on the wrong side of their games.
All four teams will still believe they can get through, but with Cork, Rovers and Derry all facing away games and all needing to score, they’ll be travelling in hope rather than expectation.
The big concern for all of the teams will be goals.
Only Dundalk managed to score this week and the concerned managers and coaches will be putting on some attacking and finishing sessions between now and the second-legs.
Hopefully our League of Ireland stars have their shooting boots on next week. If not, we’re likely to have just one team getting through, alongside Cork, who’ll drop into the Europa League third qualifying round if they can’t fight-back against Legia Warsaw.
Here's hoping.
