After the buzz of Oasis, a different kind of anticipation sweeps through Drumcondra ahead of tonight’s Uefa Conference League play-off first leg with Linfield.
This corner of north Dublin was a much more subdued place for pre-match duties yesterday afternoon as the comedown from those raucous weekend gigs one kilometre up the road continues for the 160,000 people that filled Croke Park.
The streets and pubs around Tolka Park were lined with people ready to reconnect – or in some cases get their first live experience – with a feeling that defined a part of their lives.
Shels are now on the cusp of a potentially defining chapter in their own 130-year history, while Shamrock Rovers also travel to the Azores to face Portuguese top flight club Santa Clara at the same stage looking to qualify for the third time in four seasons.
The prospect of two League of Ireland teams reaching the group/league phase of European competition together is a significant one, a moment in time that many considered to be an impossibility but has the potential to one day become more commonplace should progress continue to be made.
There are millions on offer – €7.5 million combined for Shels and Rovers – as Uefa’s third-tier competition offers the chance to expand their horizons even if it means doing so further and further away from the elite.
Unsurprisingly, Joey O’Brien was remaining focused on the task at hand rather than overarching narratives.
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“When you step away from it and you look at it and think, ‘what’s at stake?’ As the manager and the lads as players, you don’t wake up every day thinking, ‘Jesus, this is the biggest game we’ve ever played’. You wouldn’t be able to play. That’s not what it’s about,” the Shels head coach said ahead of this All Ireland rematch with a side they already knocked out of the Champions League in the first qualifying round.
“It’s about focusing on your performance, focusing on what has got us to where we are. The level of performance over the last number of weeks overall has been really, really good.
“Our performance in Europe has been really, really good. It’s about, again, implementing that and making sure you just focus on your performance. You come in here and you have no regrets after the game.”
For Rovers boss Stephen Bradley, he boarded the team flight to the Azores on Wednesday having already received the kind of news that would have been an incredible emotional release for him and his family.
His 11-year-old son, Josh, was able to ring the bell in St John’s Ward at Crumlin Children’s Hospital to signify the successful end of cancer treatment.
“Getting the news last week was the best news we’ve had in three and a half years,” Bradley told the Irish Independent and Irish Daily Mirror in Dublin Airport.
After 3 long years of treatment, Josh rang the bell today!
Our hearts are lifted to see this courageous boy get to move on to such a well deserved and exciting new chapter. The biggest congrats to Josh, his devoted parents Emma and Stephen and his adoring sisters! 💛 pic.twitter.com/yuQLCwsVly
“We went in yesterday and all the nurses and doctors who looked after him for the last three and a half years were there. They’re incredible people in St John’s Ward, they really are, and they take each case really personally, and even to see their emotion yesterday was incredible, you know, because we know we are one of the lucky families that gets to ring that bell.”
Such perspective has never been far from Bradley’s thought process during a time of incredible personal struggle for his family, while also overseeing some of the most memorable moments of his professional career – reaching the knockout stages of the Uefa Conference League last season among them.
Beating Santa Clara, who finished fifth in Portugal’s top flight last year, over two legs to reach the league phase this term would add to a growing list of achievements.
Rovers would not only secure their place in successive editions of the competition, but they would become the first League of Ireland club to do so while also not availing of the champions’ path through the qualifying rounds.
That is the route that offered Shels a path to this point after they beat Linfield 2-1 on aggregate in the first qualifying round of the Champions League in mid July.
That result meant David Healy’s side needed to come through two knockout ties – against Zalgiris of Lithuania and Vikingur from the Faroe Islands – to give themselves this opportunity.
Ed McGinty (left) and Josh Honohan at the Estádio de São Miguel. Martin Seras Lima / INPHO
Martin Seras Lima / INPHO / INPHO
For Shels, Qarabag showed their pedigree in a testing second round tie in the Champions League before a late defeat against Croatian champions Rijeka in the Europa League third qualifying round led to O’Brien’s men getting this final shot at European football for the rest of the year.
The Reds boss said he wanted his players to use “the hurt for the hunt” after losing to Rijeka and insists post-match celebrations in Windsor Park, when a large Irish tricolour with ‘Shels’
“I think their fans clapped us off as well. We didn’t get too carried away. I remember, obviously, in the dressing room and stuff like that, there was nothing like that. I suppose that moment of euphoria, that’s what it’s about and that’s what you play the game for.
“So, I wasn’t going to tell the lads to calm down. You put so much work and effort into it. When you win, you celebrate. It’s a bit like Rijeka here the other night. I mean, for me to start complaining about them celebrating, the noise they were making in their dressing room.
“For me, that’s what football’s about. It’s about celebrating when you win and when you get through things. Whoever gets through, they will be the ones celebrating and that’s all that matters.”
Live – Shelbourne v Linfield, RTÉ 2, 7.45pm.
Live – Santa Clara v Shamrock Rovers, LOI TV, 8pm.
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From Drumcondra to the Azores, League of Ireland clubs braced for defining European nights
SHELBOURNE VIBES IN the area.
History vibes in the area.
After the buzz of Oasis, a different kind of anticipation sweeps through Drumcondra ahead of tonight’s Uefa Conference League play-off first leg with Linfield.
This corner of north Dublin was a much more subdued place for pre-match duties yesterday afternoon as the comedown from those raucous weekend gigs one kilometre up the road continues for the 160,000 people that filled Croke Park.
The streets and pubs around Tolka Park were lined with people ready to reconnect – or in some cases get their first live experience – with a feeling that defined a part of their lives.
Shels are now on the cusp of a potentially defining chapter in their own 130-year history, while Shamrock Rovers also travel to the Azores to face Portuguese top flight club Santa Clara at the same stage looking to qualify for the third time in four seasons.
The prospect of two League of Ireland teams reaching the group/league phase of European competition together is a significant one, a moment in time that many considered to be an impossibility but has the potential to one day become more commonplace should progress continue to be made.
There are millions on offer – €7.5 million combined for Shels and Rovers – as Uefa’s third-tier competition offers the chance to expand their horizons even if it means doing so further and further away from the elite.
Unsurprisingly, Joey O’Brien was remaining focused on the task at hand rather than overarching narratives.
“When you step away from it and you look at it and think, ‘what’s at stake?’ As the manager and the lads as players, you don’t wake up every day thinking, ‘Jesus, this is the biggest game we’ve ever played’. You wouldn’t be able to play. That’s not what it’s about,” the Shels head coach said ahead of this All Ireland rematch with a side they already knocked out of the Champions League in the first qualifying round.
“It’s about focusing on your performance, focusing on what has got us to where we are. The level of performance over the last number of weeks overall has been really, really good.
“Our performance in Europe has been really, really good. It’s about, again, implementing that and making sure you just focus on your performance. You come in here and you have no regrets after the game.”
For Rovers boss Stephen Bradley, he boarded the team flight to the Azores on Wednesday having already received the kind of news that would have been an incredible emotional release for him and his family.
His 11-year-old son, Josh, was able to ring the bell in St John’s Ward at Crumlin Children’s Hospital to signify the successful end of cancer treatment.
“Getting the news last week was the best news we’ve had in three and a half years,” Bradley told the Irish Independent and Irish Daily Mirror in Dublin Airport.
“We went in yesterday and all the nurses and doctors who looked after him for the last three and a half years were there. They’re incredible people in St John’s Ward, they really are, and they take each case really personally, and even to see their emotion yesterday was incredible, you know, because we know we are one of the lucky families that gets to ring that bell.”
Such perspective has never been far from Bradley’s thought process during a time of incredible personal struggle for his family, while also overseeing some of the most memorable moments of his professional career – reaching the knockout stages of the Uefa Conference League last season among them.
Beating Santa Clara, who finished fifth in Portugal’s top flight last year, over two legs to reach the league phase this term would add to a growing list of achievements.
Rovers would not only secure their place in successive editions of the competition, but they would become the first League of Ireland club to do so while also not availing of the champions’ path through the qualifying rounds.
That is the route that offered Shels a path to this point after they beat Linfield 2-1 on aggregate in the first qualifying round of the Champions League in mid July.
That result meant David Healy’s side needed to come through two knockout ties – against Zalgiris of Lithuania and Vikingur from the Faroe Islands – to give themselves this opportunity.
For Shels, Qarabag showed their pedigree in a testing second round tie in the Champions League before a late defeat against Croatian champions Rijeka in the Europa League third qualifying round led to O’Brien’s men getting this final shot at European football for the rest of the year.
The Reds boss said he wanted his players to use “the hurt for the hunt” after losing to Rijeka and insists post-match celebrations in Windsor Park, when a large Irish tricolour with ‘Shels’
“I think their fans clapped us off as well. We didn’t get too carried away. I remember, obviously, in the dressing room and stuff like that, there was nothing like that. I suppose that moment of euphoria, that’s what it’s about and that’s what you play the game for.
“So, I wasn’t going to tell the lads to calm down. You put so much work and effort into it. When you win, you celebrate. It’s a bit like Rijeka here the other night. I mean, for me to start complaining about them celebrating, the noise they were making in their dressing room.
“For me, that’s what football’s about. It’s about celebrating when you win and when you get through things. Whoever gets through, they will be the ones celebrating and that’s all that matters.”
Live – Shelbourne v Linfield, RTÉ 2, 7.45pm.
Live – Santa Clara v Shamrock Rovers, LOI TV, 8pm.
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bring it on League of Ireland Linfield LOI Shamrock Rovers Shelbourne Soccer uefa conference league playoff