Updated at 13.25
Ben Blake reports from Warsaw
DUNDALK’S ANDY BOYLE believes an early away goal in tonight’s Champions League play-off second leg with Legia Warsaw would blow the tie back open.
A week ago, the Polish side opened the scoring from the penalty spot in a 2-0 win last after the Lilywhites defender was harshly adjudged to have handled the ball.
25-year-old Boyle felt aggrieved at the decision directly after the game but says he has put the frustrations behind him.
“You have to move on straight away,” said Boyle. “Listen, it was disappointing at the time and seeing it back after it’s even more disappointing but the decision is made and you can’t change it. What’s done is done.
“The penalty swings the game and gives them momentum for the ten or 15 mins after it but we got back into it. It’s just hard to take, the manner of how it then happened.
“It was probably naive on our part as we were too open. 1-0 is not the worst result in the world but we look forward to tomorrow night and try do ourselves justice.”
The Polish Army Stadium, Legia’s 31,000-seater home, is likely to be full for this evening’s game as the club close in on a first qualification to the Champions League group stages since 1995.
It’s a tall order that Dundalk face as no Irish side has ever comeback from a 2-0 first leg defeat in Europe, but Boyle says they will throw everything at their opponents tonight.
“If you score first, I think you see from their league form they’re not very confident at home,” he said. “You can use their fans to our advantage.
“We know they’re a good side but we played well in the first leg and it wasn’t really a 2-0 game. If we get the first goal it can be a big turning point in the tie.
“I think we will, we have to go for it. There’s no point us trying to keep it tight and dying a slow death in the game.
We have players in the team that can hurt players at any level, like (Daryl) Horgan and (Patrick) McEleney the other night, we have goal throughout the team and a clean sheet is a big part of it. But we’re confident we can score goals and make it difficult for them.
“When you come to a place like this, kind of partizan fans, they sometimes don’t stay with their team if you get that goal.
“If we get it, who knows what could happen. We know they’re a good side that can hurt us, if we push on too much they can hurt us on the counter but with the manager and the group we have, we won’t be content drawing 0-0 and going out 2-0.
“That’s no good to anyone, you want to give a good fist of it and we definitely have the players to go and do that.”
In 2014, the Louth club claimed a 2-1 Europa League victory away to Hadjuk Split, going out of the competition 3-2 on aggregate, and that is an experience this group can take hope from.
“I think we can draw on confidence from that tie,” Boyle added. “We were very good and had that game on three or four minutes longer I think we would have scored as we were creating chances and they looked a bit rocky.
“That’s something we have to try and do — get the first goal and their fans might turn on them.”
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