While much of the spotlight is on December's trip to Chelsea, former Republic of Ireland winger Keith Treacy feels there are opportunities elsewhere for Shamrock Rovers to try and progress from the league phase of the UEFA Conference League.
Stephen Bradley's side booked their place in the lucrative opening section of UEFA's third-tier club competition for this season which, like the Champions League and Europa League, has moved away from the two-legged group stage format and towards a league table system.
The fixture draw was made last week and saw a trip to Stamford Bridge to take on Premier League giants Chelsea on 19 December confirmed as the glamour tie among the six opponents they will face.
The reigning SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division champions will also take on Cypriot outfit APOEL, Welsh side The New Saints and Borac of Bosnia at Tallaght Stadium, while the other away trips will be to Rapid Vienna and Larne, the first Northern Irish side to qualify for a European competition proper, who will play their home games at Belfast's Windsor Park.
With all 36 clubs in the Conference League playing in one league, the top eight will get a bye to the last-16, while ninth to 24th will advance to the first knockout-round.
Shamrock Rovers' task therefore will be to try and avoid being among the 12-worst sides who exit after completion of the league phase and looking at the fixtures on this week's RTÉ Soccer Podcast, Treacy believes there are opportunities for the Hoops to accumulate the points that could be enough to put them into the top-24.
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"You're looking at Larne up the North, you'd be thinking, 'Could we possibly nick three points there', The New Saints, the Welsh team as well, you'd not be quite sure what the level is over there," he said.
"There's probably 12 realistic points you could go for. I don't think anybody's expecting Shamrock Rovers to go to Stamford Bridge and realistically get something.
"(The Chelsea game) is a brilliant reward for getting this far, an eye-catching game, but I think Shamrock Rovers will be thinking, 'Yeah, we can be competitive in this league phase' and pick up a couple of points."
He added: "The Larne game as well is one where there'll be a little bit of needle in it, so some really big games to look forward to and I'm hopeful that Shamrock Rovers can throw a couple of punches in the (league phase)."
However, Rovers will need to significantly improve on their domestic form. On Sunday morning's early kick-off, they lost the Dublin derby 2-1 to Bohemians, further denting any hopes they had of catching Shelbourne and Derry City and winning a record fifth league title in a row.
While Treacy believes it has been an incremental dip domestically from their most recent standards, the deluge of European focus between now and Christmas will make it difficult for Bradley's team to regain consistency in the LOI.
"They're not a million miles off it whatsoever. (But) I think going for the historic five-in-a-row is probably not going to happen," he said.
"When they did get into the league phase of Europe, I thought 'That's Rovers' league campaign done'. There's no way they can compete on both and with some of the mouth-watering fixtures they have in Europe...
"I know you have the carrot there, you want to play against Chelsea and you've got to do it in the league (to get into team) but when the players are a little bit tired, you're thinking, 'I want to be fit for that Chelsea game, I don't want to pull my hamstring, I don't want to go above and beyond my means', so I don't see it getting too much better in the league for Shamrock Rovers with the carrot of the European league phase."
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