Thursday 25 July
UEFA Conference League - Second Round Qualifying first legs
FC Zurich (Switzerland) v Shelbourne, 6pm
St Patrick's Athletic v Vaduz (Liechtenstein), Richmond Park, 7.45pm
Coverage
Live scores and match reports on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app.
And then there were two
St Pat's play their first European game of the season, entering the second round on the basis of being FAI Cup winners.
Shelbourne have already come through one round, seeing off St Joseph's 3-2 on aggregate. It was a stern test of Shels against the Gibraltarian outfit.
Derry City were expected to be in this stage but came unstuck against Bruno's Magpies, also 3-2 on aggregate.
The Saints not marching in
In theory Pat's should be somewhat rested given they skipped the first round and have had little league action.
They were expected to put it up to Derry City in the FAI Cup, yet produced a flat performance against a side that had played 120 minutes days earlier.
Stephen Kenny has not been able to weave his magic yet with two victories in 10 matches.
The Saints boss is beginning to put together his squad and time is certainly on his side.
The Cup exit could see Pat's' season fizzle out and without any real highlight, unless they can produce something in Europe.
It will take a big turnaround to enter the European race again, so this could be the last game from a foreign side in Dublin 8 for some time.
Vaduz are a hard read
Operating in the second division in Switzerland, Vaduz are European regulars.
They were beaten by Neman Grondo last year in surprise result. The previous season they reached the group stages of the Conference League.
Due to the lack of competition, they are annual participants in Europe so little with faze them.
Their last clash with an Irish team was two decades ago when they disposed of Longford Town.
View from Inchicore
Given their struggles in the league and cup, this may be a welcome distraction for the Saints.
A win in this tie could provide a springboard for the Kenny era.
Winger Jake Mulraney said on Wednesday: "We want to go and do well in Europe. The year before I came that's what happened at Pat's, the boys were telling me they struggled until Europe and then kicked on and won a lot of games. It can definitely spur things on because momentum in this league is big.
"With football, when you are in a bit of a rut I think it's so important to move on as quickly as possible. There is no point getting stuck.
"I know sometimes it can be up and down, you can win games and lose games, but as a group and especially we’ve got young players, I think it’s vital, the mental side of things, just to move on as quick as you can and try to get the train back on track as quickly as possible."
Shels with little to lose
Shels face a harder task away to Swiss outfit FC Zurich, a big name to be at this stage of qualifying.
Republic of Ireland Under-21 international Armstrong Oko-Flex is in the Zurich squad but is likely to be on the bench.
He joined from West Ham last season.
Zurich started their league season last weekend with 2-0 victory over Yverdon.
Recent signing Juan Perea scored his first goal after joining from Hansa Rostock. He looks set to be their starting striker this season.
They finished fourth last season to qualify for Europe, 17 points off league winners Young Boys.
It's a second time they are meeting Irish opposition having beaten Dundalk 3-0 in 1963 in the European Cup.
Duff coming out fighting
Unsurprisingly, Shels boss Damien Duff has been issuing something of a rallying cry for his players.
He has called on his experience working under Brian Kerr for inspiration.
"It's a very difficult task, it’s as hard a game as you can get, it’s a challenge I’m relishing, I can’t wait.
"All we’ve done in the league for two and a half years is upsetting people and upsetting the apple cart, and now it’s time to take it to Europe and the rest of the world.
"This game made me think of Brian Kerr years ago, massive underdogs, underage teams and you just take it to them. If we can channel half of what Brian did with those Irish teams, we’ll be doing alright. I’m a disciple of Brian, and many of the managers that I had.
"The guys will be ready to go tactically and I guess it is about giving them belief, and I hope we can do that, and obviously belief is a massive thing, and then obviously motivating them emotionally.
"The lads know what task is in front of them, there's a lot of top quality players, they are a Swiss institution, they have won their league many, many times, they are a massive club.
"But it's not a time to be scared, we have to embrace the occasion, embrace the game, I hope I am speaking on behalf of the players as if we tiptoe into action on Thursday, we will be in for a long night."
The winner plays....
The winner of FC Zurich and Shels will meet either Vitória SC from Portugal or Floriana FC of Malta.
Pat's or FC Vaduz will face the side emerging from the Maccabi Haifa FC (Israel) v FC Sabah (Azerbaijan) tie.
Progress to the second round would be worth an additional €300,000 to the Premier Division clubs.
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