SHELBOURNE ARE set for one of their biggest games of the season on Wednesday evening.

The Dublin side face reigning Croatian champions HNK Rijeka (kick-off: 7.45pm — live on Solid Sport), who are at home for the first leg of the Europa League third qualifying round clash.

Winning the tie would guarantee a minimum of €3.8 million in prize money, and at worst, a place in the league phase of the Uefa Conference League.

But Shels manager, Joey O’Brien, believes their opponents are favourites to progress to the play-off round to play either Greek side PAOK or Wolfsberger of Austria.

“It’s going to be a really difficult game, but it’s a game we can’t wait for, we’re really looking forward to,” O’Brien says.

While a draw would be perceived as a positive result for the Irish side ahead of next week’s home leg in Tolka, O’Brien insists his team will aim to win on the night and not be tempted to adopt an overly defensive approach.

“If you have a game plan of just sitting in and trying to survive for 90 minutes, I don’t think it works like that,” he adds.

Hot and humid conditions are expected at the Stadion Rujevica, which has a capacity of just over 8,000.

Shelbourne will be without defender Tyreke Wilson and ex-Arsenal youngster Jack Henry-Francis, though goalkeeper Conor Kearns could return quicker than expected from a hamstring injury, while Milan Mbeng and Sean Moore, recently signed from Cork City and West Ham respectively, are both available.

The Croatian side’s squad contains several international players, and O’Brien believes they were “unlucky” to get knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers and looked “the better team” over two legs.

After a 0-0 draw at home, they lost 3-1 after extra time to the Bulgarian side, Ludogorets, with the 77th and 98th minute dismissals of former Croatia underage internationals Gabriel Rukavina and Toni Fruk significant factors in the defeat.

Rijeka, who won the double last season, are just one game into their domestic campaign — two stoppage-time goals saw them beat Slaven Belupo 2-0 on Sunday.

By contrast, Shels have played 26 Premier Division matches this year, but O’Brien played down any suggestion that they would have the edge in terms of match sharpness.

“When you get to a certain level of player, and this is a certain level of team, this is one of those teams where there are obviously professionals. I think people from the outside really make a big thing of that.

“Just from my own experience of playing, when you’re playing at a high level, you’re a professional 24 hours a day, every day of the year. I think from that point of view, the days are gone where in the off-season, lads used to go out on the batter and put on bleedin’ half a stone and then burn it off in pre-season. That’s not the case anymore. Especially when you get to this level, these are serious teams and serious players.”

O’Brien hopes lessons will have been learned from Shels’ Champions League exit at the hands of Qarabag last month.

In the first leg, especially, individual errors proved costly, with the Azerbaijan outfit going 3-0 up to effectively end the tie, while the 1-0 away defeat was also far from satisfactory.

“When you have your opportunity on the ball, you’ve got to keep the football. That was probably one thing last week against Qarabag in the first half, especially, we were guilty of too many easy, cheap turnovers, and we gave away possession. Against this calibre of opposition, you keep on turning over the ball, they’re going to just pin you in.”

Joey O'Brien has urged his side to "attack" the game. Evan Logan / INPHO Evan Logan / INPHO / INPHO

Defeat over two legs would send the reigning Premier Division champions into a Uefa Conference League qualifying play-off.

They would face either the Faroese side Vikingur or NIFL Premiership outfit Linfield, whom they have already defeated 2-1 on aggregate in the first round of the Champions League qualifiers.

But O’Brien says his squad have given no thought to this potential outcome, with the focus firmly on Rijeka.

“I don’t really care what people outside the dressing room think. My focus is on what I can control, and I’d like to think I can have some control over the dressing room. 

“I just feel as a player, [you're in trouble if] you start letting yourself think like that and ‘maybe this might happen and we get these again’.

“You want to go out and challenge yourself, and you want to attack what’s in front of you. I think you’re at your best when you don’t have that safety net, or you think it’s okay to lose, or: ‘It’s okay if you get beat here, it’s not too bad.’ That’s not how you play football. That’s not how I am as a person.”