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Dundalk's Michael Duffy gets a shot away against Rosenborg. Ryan Byrne/INPHO
Duff going

Dundalk disappointed but remaining confident of another big Champions League result

Stephen Kenny’s side were held at home to Rosenborg.

ROSENBORG WILL HAVE the upper hand going into next week’s second leg but Dundalk winger Michael Duffy insists they’re confident of securing a result that will send them into the third qualifying round of the Champions League for the second year in a row.

Although the tie is poised at 1-1 following last night’s first leg at Oriel Park, Rosenborg are marginally in the ascendancy thanks to their away goal.

“It is a good result but we felt with the way the game went we’re a bit disappointed,” Duffy said. “We should have come out with a win. I thought we deserved to win.”

Dundalk took the lead in the 18th minute when Duffy crossed for David McMillan to head in his seventh Champions League goal, but the Norwegian champions equalised jut before half-time when Tore Reginussen bundled the ball home from a free-kick into the box after Sean Gannon had been dubiously penalised.

“In the first half we were brilliant,” Duffy said. “We were so unlucky to come in at half-time at 1-1. I thought we deserved to be leading. It took us a while to get started in the second half but throughout the whole game I think we were on top.”

The former Celtic winger added: “We could have been two or three up and then giving away the goal close to half-time just sort of killed us a bit.”

Last night’s result means that Dundalk must score next Wednesday at the Lerkendal Stadion in Trondheim, while a goalless draw will suffice for the hosts to progress. Nevertheless, the Lilywhites have a good recent record of scoring away from home.

Only once — last season against BATE Borisov — have the three-in-a-row SSE Airtricity League Premier Division champions failed to score on the road in Europe in nine games under manager Stephen Kenny.

“If we score out there it’s all square again so we’ll be going out there confident,” Duffy said. “If we play like we did tonight we’ll not be far away.”

Dundalk overcame FH Hafnarfjarðar of Iceland over two legs at this stage last season. In spite of the aforementioned defeat to BATE Borisov in Belarus, they rebounded in the second leg with a 3-0 win at Tallaght Stadium which sent them into the play-off round.

Kenny’s side were unable to get the better of Polish champions Legia Warsaw, but their consolation was a place in the group stages of the Europa League.

– Additional reporting by Caoimhín Reilly

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