Dec 12,2024
Shamrock Rovers will be looking to maintain their impressive start to the UEFA Conference League as they welcome FK Borac Banja Luka to Tallaght Stadum.
Stephen Bradley's side are, remarkably, unbeaten in their opening four games having drawn at home with Cypriot champions, APOEL, before beating Larne in Belfast and The New Saints at home, following up with an impressive 1-1 away result against the highly rated Rapid Vienna last time out.
The end of the League of Ireland campaign seems a lifetime away at this stage, as Rovers play out their remaining two fixtures of the league phase against the side from Bosnia tonight, followed by the exciting away day at Stamford Bridge to take on Chelsea next week.
The Hoops have one foot in the knock-out stages and will be looking to cement their spot in tonight’s home encounter, which looks set to be an evenly matched outing between two sides set to progress.
Tonight’s opponents went one better against APOEL, defeating them 1-0, while they also secured all three points against Austrian opponents LASK, as well as taking an impressive point in their meeting with Greek unit Panathinaikos.
Rovers will take heart from the fact that Borac were turned over by Vikingur Reykjavik – losing 2-0 away from home – having beaten the Icelandic champions over two legs earlier in this year’s European campaign.
The out-of-season Hoops have not played since that impressive result in the Austrian capital and will hope that the energy levels can be maintained against a side that are midway through their domestic campaign.
However, the momentum that Bradley’s side have built up throughout the campaign, thus far, coupled with the fervent home support should certainly see them through tonight’s 90 minutes.
Only five teams have officially stamped their card for the knockout phase, with league leaders Chelsea joined by Legia Warsaw, who have also secured maximum points, as well as Jagiellonia, Vitoria SC, and the aforementioned Rapid Vienna.
With 24 out of the 36 teams making it through to the next phase, it is predicted that Rovers have already secured safe passage, while a victory tonight could see them dream of a top eight finish, which would see them go straight through to the round of 16, avoiding the play-offs.
Rovers approach to the competition has proved almost perfect as they absorbed a serious amount of pressure against APOEL and Rapid before coming back to share the spoils, while they played more progressively and with a lot more attacking intent in the victories over Larne and TNS.
Borac, especially at home, would be considered closer to the latter two, which should see Rovers play with real confidence against their visitors tonight, and with eight points already on the board, it takes a certain amount of pressure off the performance.
The Bosnia side, on the other hand, are sitting on seven points and may well target an away draw to secure their own spot in the knock-out stages.
Rovers mantra throughout their European campaign has been that they have the belief that chances will present themselves no matter the opposition, and they have proved that point by creating and scoring the vital goals in all four games.
The extensive squad at Bradley’s disposal ensures that the manager can plan for every eventuality in tonight’s game with options off the bench for whatever the situation heading into the final 30 minutes.
But expect Bradley to send out an attack-minded, yet organised formation, happy to build from the back and explode into life with real speed up top to drag the Borac rearguard out of position.
Rovers will be looking for a strong start to the game to avoid any end-of-season fatigue kicking in, as was perhaps the case in the opening 45 minutes in Vienna, however, Bradley felt that his team finished the game very strongly and he will be emphasising the need to pick up where they last left off.
As mentioned, Bradley has a really strong squad to choose from with only Aaron McEneff and Rory Gaffney ruled out of tonight’s encounter, while Aaron Greene, Danny Mandroiu and Graham Burke have all enjoyed a good week’s training ahead of the game.
The Rovers manager is expecting a strong challenge from tonight’s opponents who came out the wrong side of a top of the table clash at the weekend, while he has highlighted the danger that they bring with crosses into the box.
With three towering and experienced centre-halves set to defend Leon Pohls’ goal, that particular challenge is one that Rovers will surely embrace and have the confidence to nullify, which will leave it up to the attacking unit to go and try to win the game.
Players like Johhny Kenny, Graham Burke and Neil Farrugia have really come alive on the European stage, and as Rovers aim to make double digits for their points tally, Bradley will surely encourage his entire attack to go out and make more memories to sign off the home campaign with a performance and result to remember.
"Training has been good," said Bradley. "It hasn't been as long a break as it was before Vienna when the players had some time off and they needed that break and time off.
"So it just feels like we’re back in our rhythm which is nice. But we haven’t had the competitive game which Borac had last weekend, they had a top of the table clash so that’s the only disadvantage.
"But the break hasn’t been too bad this time, we’ve been training constantly and I think we’ll be in a better place with it."
"Borac have some very good attacking players," added Bradley. "Both wide players are very good, we'll see that tomorrow. They have threats from crosses and are strong there, they have a clear identity with that.
"They’ve come off the top of the table clash at the weekend, which I like when you are in a good rhythm, so I’m sure they’ll have that.
"So there’s no doubt this will be a tough game but if we can close to a full stadium tomorrow, get them behind us, we can win the game and see where that takes us in terms of automatic qualification. It will be really tight but it gives us a hell of a chance if we can do it."
