DUNDALK MANAGER FILIPPO Giovagnoli says “pressure is a privilege” ahead of the club’s Europa League play-off against KI of the Faroe Islands tomorrow night.
Dundalk will become just the third Irish side to qualify for the competition’s group stages if they beat Faroese opponents at the Aviva Stadium tomorrow night, a game in which the Irish side find themselves in the unfamiliar position of favourites.
“I was discussing it with Giuseppe [Rossi, his assistant] and the feeling of having this kind of pressure, and I said pressure is a privilege and it’s important to have this kind of privilege in life. I hope we have more of this. Let the pressure come because it means we are successful.”
Giovagnoli, in spite of having never coached an adult side before, left his role as Director of Coaching at Metropolitan Oval Academy in New York to be parachuted into Dundalk last month after the departure of Vinny Perth.
Nonetheless, Giovagnoli has presided over wins away to Inter of Andorra and Moldovan champions Sheriff, and has brought Dundalk to 90 minutes from a massive European payday: a minimum €2.9 million just for qualifying, with more than €500,000 on offer for each win.
It’s a pretty remarkable turn of events for Giovagnoli – even by 2020′s mind bending standards – but he doesn’t spend too much time putting the journey into perspective.
“It’s unbelievable, but thank God I don’t think like that. My brain is built to think step-by-step. I would go crazy if I start to dream, I have to be focused on tasks. That’s how I have to think. This is my task now, I have to perform, and when I’m finished this one I will have to perform the next. Football is like that: you can be a hero one day, and the day after, if you don’t perform, if you lose a game, you become stupid. It is what it is, but now the focus is on this game.”
That said, he admitted tomorrow is the biggest moment of his career, but remained eager to focus on matters larger than him.
“The focus is not on me, it is on the club. It’s a big, big opportunity. It’s not about me, it’s about the club, it’s about the players, and, I think, the entire football nation in Ireland. If Dundalk go through it is in the interests of everyone, imagine the points in the [coefficient] ranking.
