DUNDALK WILL FACE familiar opposition tonight in the Champions League qualifiers, but manager Stephen Kenny insists their approach will be slightly different to when they last crossed paths.
Going into the second qualifying round of the Champions League last season, the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division side were full of admiration for BATE Borisov, a club which had risen from a small league on the periphery of European football to become a regular fixture in the group stages.
Irish clubs can look on in envy at the achievements of BATE, who have defeated the likes of Bayern Munich, Roma, Lille and Athletic Bilbao on European club football’s biggest stage in recent seasons. It’s a position in which League of Ireland clubs such as the back-to-back champions aspire to be, regardless of how unlikely that may seem.
Nevertheless, in spite of the significant gulf between the teams in terms of budget and Champions League calibre, Dundalk were only a goal away from dumping BATE out of the competition last season. After defeating the Lilywhites 2-1 in Belarus, BATE secured a 0-0 draw at Oriel Park to progress.
“For them to compete regularly with all the giants of Europe shows that it can be achieved. Obviously they’ve had major investment and financial backing in Belarus,” Dundalk manager Stephen Kenny told Newstalk’s Richie McCormack.
“From our point of view, while we were acknowledging how they did that and using it as somewhat of an inspiration, we’ve stopped admiring them now. Obviously last season we went so close to them and it was a sort of bitter defeat.
“There was a real edge to it and certainly there was a bit of afters. They celebrated beating us like they won the bloody Champions League and we viewed that as a sign of respect.”
Just over a year on from their last meeting, Dundalk are back in Borisov this evening for another first-leg fixture — this time in the third qualifying round (7pm, live on Eir Sport 1). Should Dundalk progress, they’ll be just one round away from the Champions League group stages. If they fall short, they’ll enter a play-off for the group stages of the Europa League.
Kenny continued: “They knew when we went to Belarus that we gave them a really tough game over there. We dominated for long spells in the game in Borisov and they increased their intensity coming to Oriel Park and probably deserved to go through.
But they knew that we gave them a right game and certainly they’ll be waiting for us this time, so we’re not naive about that.”
As evidenced by the fact that they’re available at 6/1 to win tonight’s away leg over 90 minutes, Dundalk are substantial underdogs for this tie, the second leg of which will take place at Shamrock Rovers’ Tallaght Stadium in seven days’ time.
However, Kenny is backing his players to produce an even better performance than what they delivered in Iceland last Wednesday, when they drew 2-2 with FH Hafnarfjordur to progress to the next stage via away goals (3-3 on aggregate).
“I believe in the talent of the group that we have,” said Kenny. “I believe that we’re capable of playing even better than we did against FH and I think we’ll have to, because BATE are an exceptional team.”
