Ole Gunnar Solskjaer under pressure at Besiktas ahead of Conference League clash with St Pat's
That loss sent the Turkish giants on a Conference League collision course with League of Ireland Premier Division club St Pat's, with the first leg of that clash to take place in Tallaght Stadium on Thursday.
Reports from Turkey have already linked former Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini and ex-Liverpool player Nuri Sahin to the Besiktas job, should Solskjaer fail in his bid to overcome Stephen Kenny's Saints.
Sahin is seen as favourite to replace Solskjaer, given his knowledge of the Turkish game.
While the Super Lig club are red-hot favourites to progress against St Pat's, Solskjaer will be wary of the Dublin side who ran Besiktas' city rivals Istanbul Basaksehir close in the Conference League play-off round last year.
The 52-year-old Norwegian struck a defiant figure after last week's defeat to Shakhtar, saying: 'I believe I am the right person for this project. What we need is consistency. I will continue in my role.'
Thursday's game will be Solskjaer's third time to manage in Ireland after overseeing Manchester United reserves team take on Arsenal at Tallaght Stadium in 2010.
He also guided Norwegian club Molde to a Champions League qualifying round win over Sligo Rovers back in 2013.
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The 42
5 hours ago
- The 42
Shelbourne set for €3.8 million European tie
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. Advertisement 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.'
Irish Times
7 hours ago
- Irish Times
Shelbourne boss Joey O'Brien targets victory in Croatia despite admitting ‘monster task' awaits
Europa League 3rd qualifying round, 1st leg: Rijeka (Croatia) v Shelbourne, Stadion Rujevica, Rijeka, 7.45pm – Live on Solid Sport (streaming) From Belfast to Baku and now the picturesque Croatian port town of Rijeka, these past six weeks have been a whirlwind experience for Shelbourne and Joey O'Brien . At least the new manager has got a firm handle on his media duties. 'This is going to be a monster game,' said O'Brien before the League of Ireland champions face a side that, on paper, is 10 times more valuable than his evolving squad. 'A monster task,' he repeated before the Shelbourne players trained on Tuesday night in 27-degree heat. '[Rijeka] were unlucky not to beat Ludogorets [last week], having two men sent off. I thought they were the better team. They were unlucky. They are a serious side, but we'll set up to win the game, like we always do.' READ MORE Ludogorets, Bulgaria's European specialists, needed extra-time last Wednesday to eliminate a rusty Rijeka from the Champions League. That defeat happened three days before Radomir Djalovic's men opened their defence of the Croatian title against Slaven Belupo, winning 2-0. Shels also beat Sligo Rovers 2-0 at the Showgrounds on Saturday as new signings Seán Moore and Milan Mbeng made their debuts. The high drama that put Ludogorets into a Champions League showdown against Hungary's Ferencvaros, managed by Robbie Keane, came at a cost to Rijeka as they drop into the Europa League without suspended pair Toni Fruk and Gabriel Rukavina. [ Shelbourne and Linfield could meet again in Conference League playoff with €4m at stake Opens in new window ] O'Brien might recall his recently hamstrung goalkeeper Conor Kearns instead of new Dutch signing Wessel Speel. 'Goalkeepers don't really need to run that quick, so he is not too bad,' he said. Shels were close to full strength against Sligo, as they remain three points off a European spot for next season with 10 matches to play. Turns out, O'Brien knows what he is doing, having revived the club's on-pitch displays since Damien Duff resigned on June 22nd. Conor Kearns could be back in goal for Shelbourne against Rijeka. Photograph: James Lawlor/Inpho Besides the concession of two gut-punch, late goals to Azerbaijan's Qarabag in a 3-0 Champions League loss at Tolka Park on July 23rd, followed by a respectable 1-0 defeat in Baku, Shels are unbeaten under O'Brien in the other seven games. If they somehow find a way past Rijeka, with the second leg at Tolka next Tuesday, the winner from Greek side PAOK and Wolfsberger of Austria await in the Europa League playoff. The winners of the playoff reach the group stage. The likelier scenario is a return to Windsor Park against Linfield as David Healy's NIFL Premiership champions are expected to set up a Uefa Conference League playoff against Shels by beating Vikingur from the Faroe Islands. The winner of the playoff is guaranteed €4 million in Uefa prize money. O'Brien would not be drawn on the potential for the club's ownership to recoup three years of investment, after accumulating seven-figure losses since the Duff project was launched in 2022. Talking about the task at hand, he said: 'I said it to the lads, 'I hate Plan Bs'. We are not thinking about Plan B. This is what it is about for us: tomorrow's game. You start thinking about Plan B, you take your eye off the ball and you play safe. 'No. This is the game we want to attack. This is the tie we want to win.' A notably professional performance against Qarabag last week, despite the second-leg being effectively a dead rubber, indicates that O'Brien's instructions are being executed on the pitch. That was the crux of Duff's frustrations in the days leading up to his resignation. The former manager had started to question the commitment of some in the Shelbourne dressingroom. The players, to a man, appear more switched on since. The test of European football against superior opposition appears to have turned Shelbourne's season around. Mipo Odubeko could add more than his eight goals in 20 appearances as the season enters the home straight. The arrival of current Ireland under-21s, Moore from West Ham and Jack Henry-Francis from Arsenal, potentially brings the quality needed to thrive in the Conference League group stages. In the meantime, Kerr McInroy and Evan Caffrey must continue their inspirational seasons in red. 'Irish teams, our record in Europe away from home against stronger teams and stronger countries over the years is not very good,' O'Brien added. 'It is going to be a monster task. But it is a task we want and we are going to embrace. We are going to put our best foot forward and try and get a result.'
RTÉ News
8 hours ago
- RTÉ News
'We hate Plan Bs' - Joey O'Brien urges Shelbourne to put best foot forward and play to win
Joey O'Brien has urged his Shelbourne side to put their best foot forward against Rijeka in tomorrow night's Europa League clash, and emphasised that there is no talk of a Plan B in the dressing room. Shelbourne would go into the play-off round of the Europa League – one tie from the league phase – should they beat Rijeka over two legs, however, there is also a viable way into the Conference League equivalent should O'Brien's side get beaten. A re-match with Linfield, a team Shelbourne have already beaten this summer, could be on the cards in such a scenario, however, the manager believes that it would be counterproductive to even assess that situation ahead of a vital game with the Croatian champions. O'Brien was cautiously optimistic about his side's chances of progression against a "really strong" side, while adding that it would be a "monster task" to go through. The Shelbourne manager believes that his side come into the tie as underdogs, however, the intention remains to set up to win the game, taking into account the soaring temperatures and the unknowns when coming up against a new side. "I think they are favourites," said O'Brien, speaking at the pre-match press conference. "It's going to be a really difficult game, but it's a game that we can't wait for. "We have a game-plan to try to set up to win the game, that's the way we always play. That's the aim of the game, every time we go out and play, we look to win. "If you have a game-plan just sitting in trying to survive for 90 minutes, I don't think it works like that." O'Brien sees possession as a key factor in European competition and he believes that his side will show their capabilities if they can keep control of the football for sustained periods of play. However, the manager has urged caution ahead of the game and has told his players that they really need to show total concentration in the early stages to get a real understanding of the opposition and how to implement the aforementioned game-plan. "In European football, you need to get into possession, and I think we showed that against Qarabag in the previous round that when we get on the ball and show quality, we're a good team. That's one of my big messages to our players tomorrow, is to put your best foot forward," said O'Brien. "It's that feeling out of each other," he added. "The lads have seen e n ough video of them now at this stage. Seeing who the individual players are going to come up against and certain patterns they work as a team. "But again, you never really know until you're out on the pitch and you see the movements and you see how quick they are and stuff like that. "So we obviously need to be on guard of that because we've learned before that you cannot give away moments in the start of the game really because otherwise you're going to turn into a long night. "It's about, making sure we're on guard in that first half." And O'Brien believes that his side have being building momentum through a string of good performances in both the league and in European competition, and while he still rues that first leg performance against Qarabag, where they lost 3-0 at Tolka Park, he feels that his team bounced back impressively in the second leg. "I think we've been playing good stuff over the last little while," said O'Brien, when asked about confidence levels within the squad ahead of the game. "In the Qarabag game, it was a really tough opposition, and we're disappointed how we started the game in the first half. We let them settle into it a little bit. But I thought second half we were really good again and had the momentum of the game. "Then over in Qarabag, the lads again done really well, and we were able to make changes, which shows the strength of the squad that we have. We done really well in that game, I felt. The game-plan was decent enough, we had a couple of chances and should have scored, so who knows how that leg could have went?" And as for Plan B, O'Brien was not entertaining talk about what possibilities could come via the Conference League. "I spoke to the lads about it. We hate Plan B's and we're not thinking about Plan B. If you think about Plan B, you take your eye off the ball. "As a player, if you start letting yourself think like that, 'maybe this might happen or we get these again', that's not the way you play football. "You want to go out and challenge yourself and attack what's in front of you and I think you're at your best when you don't have that safety net or you think, it's OK to lose, it's not too bad. "It's going to be a monster game. Irish teams, our record in Europe away from home against stronger teams and stronger countries over the years isn't very good. "So it's going to be a monster task but it's the task that we want and we're going to embrace and we're going to try and put our best foot forward and get a result."
