Macdara Ferris reports from Laugardalsvöllur in Reykjavik
HOOPS HEAD COACH Stephen Bradley was left rueing how his Shamrock Rovers side were not ruthless enough to build on Graham Burke’s first half goal and could not go on and claim victory in their Conference League clash with Breidablik.
His team came undone in the second half in Iceland as they fell to a 3-1 loss to Breidablik to effectively eliminate Rovers from Europe.
“I’m just disappointed with how we came away from what was working in the first half, and that’s really frustrating,” said Bradley speaking to the Irish media in the Icelandic national stadium after the match. “When you do that, you lose control of the game. That’s very unlike us.
“In the first half we were controlling the game, we were hurting them. In the second half, we just stopped doing what we were doing. We made it easy for them to press us in the second half and we couldn’t get control in the game because of that.”
Having taken the lead through Graham Burke’s 13th European goal just after the half hour mark, they coughed up an equaliser within three minutes from a short corner they didn’t effectively deal with.
“You know in Europe the five minutes after you score is crucial,” said Bradley. “Leading up to the corner, we make a basic error. We got punished. Dylan (Watts) is usually very good at dealing with them. He just allowed them that half yard, which he usually doesn’t do, and then we lose a man in the box and we were in trouble after that. We’re an experienced team in Europe, we know quite well if you switch off for a second, you get punished. We did that after we scored.
“I think being out of season, you could see in the final third moreso that little bit of (difference in) sharpness in your decision making, how quick you make it. It is just when you have a team and you know you have them, you need to be ruthless and stay on them. But in the second half, we didn’t do that.”
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'That's really frustrating' - Stephen Bradley laments dip in Rovers’ intensity after loss
Macdara Ferris reports from Laugardalsvöllur in Reykjavik
HOOPS HEAD COACH Stephen Bradley was left rueing how his Shamrock Rovers side were not ruthless enough to build on Graham Burke’s first half goal and could not go on and claim victory in their Conference League clash with Breidablik.
His team came undone in the second half in Iceland as they fell to a 3-1 loss to Breidablik to effectively eliminate Rovers from Europe.
“I’m just disappointed with how we came away from what was working in the first half, and that’s really frustrating,” said Bradley speaking to the Irish media in the Icelandic national stadium after the match. “When you do that, you lose control of the game. That’s very unlike us.
“In the first half we were controlling the game, we were hurting them. In the second half, we just stopped doing what we were doing. We made it easy for them to press us in the second half and we couldn’t get control in the game because of that.”
Having taken the lead through Graham Burke’s 13th European goal just after the half hour mark, they coughed up an equaliser within three minutes from a short corner they didn’t effectively deal with.
“You know in Europe the five minutes after you score is crucial,” said Bradley. “Leading up to the corner, we make a basic error. We got punished. Dylan (Watts) is usually very good at dealing with them. He just allowed them that half yard, which he usually doesn’t do, and then we lose a man in the box and we were in trouble after that. We’re an experienced team in Europe, we know quite well if you switch off for a second, you get punished. We did that after we scored.
“I think being out of season, you could see in the final third moreso that little bit of (difference in) sharpness in your decision making, how quick you make it. It is just when you have a team and you know you have them, you need to be ruthless and stay on them. But in the second half, we didn’t do that.”
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Football Gaffer Rovers out of Europe Soccer