Shamrock Rovers have European 'know-how' to embrace Portuguese challenge of Santa Clara

RTÉ News​

5 hours ago

Shamrock Rovers have the European know-how to cause a potential shock against Portuguese side Santa Clara and advance past the UEFA Conference League play-off stage, according to Conan Byrne.
The Hoops will have to do it the hard way against a team from one of the top leagues in Europe, however, former St Patrick's Athletic midfielder Byrne believes that Stephen Bradley's side have built up the vital experience to hand Santa Clara a tough challenge.
Rovers are one of three Irish clubs in Conference League action this week as League of Ireland champions Shelbourne take on Irish League holders Linfield, and the Hoops travel away to the Azores for Thursday's first leg.
As a result, the island of Ireland will be represented in this year's league phase of the competition, and the potential for two remains a strong possibility as Rovers will look to mirror last season's campaign and make it through to the 36-team format.
If Rovers are to have any chance of progressing, they will need to remain in the tie away from home and hope that they can see the job to completion back on their own turf at Tallaght Stadium in the second leg.
Rovers have previous in such matters and were again capable of reversing a first-leg defeat in the last round when they beat Ballkani 4-1 on aggregate.
"I just love the way Shamrock Rovers play their games in Europe," said Byrne, speaking on this week's RTE Soccer Podcast.
"They have the know-how now. And going away from home against Balkani and losing 1-0 in the manner that they did, to turn that around comprehensively in the second leg, it gives them so much confidence going into Santa Clara.
"And playing away first is so important," added Byrne.
"They can sit in, keep it tight as much as they can, and then bring it back to Tallaght. And like Stephen Bradley mentioned, it's the old cliche, but the 12th man was certainly there on Thursday night against Ballkani.
"I'm sure that if the game is very much alive coming into the home leg, it'll be a massive boost to the Shamrock Rovers players.
"So yeah, I do think Shamrock Rovers have a wonderful opportunity to go through."
Former Rovers goalkeeper Barry Murphy was cautiously optimistic regarding his old club's chances of progression, and he emphasised the importance of the performance needed in the first leg.
Murphy feels that Rovers made life difficult for themselves with a poor showing away from home in the last round and expects the Dublin club to play better this time around.
"The only thing is if they play the way they played against Ballkani away from home, they'll get beaten, because they were really poor that night," said Murphy.
"It's a very thin line between sitting back and soaking up pressure and getting them on the counter-attack, than going down and getting beaten.
"And you're coming up against a quality side in Santa Clara. When you look throughout their team, like 17 Brazilians in that squad, and that's enough to put fear into anyone.
"But listen, Santa Clara have lost their opening two league games, so if they can keep it tight over there and bring it back to Tallaght, they'll fancy beating anyone.
"Rovers have that know-how just to stay in the game because they really do fancy themselves at home. You look at the results last year in Europe, kept things tight and really good home form.
"I think going into this game, Rovers have that momentum; top of the league, into next round of the FAI Cup, changes made at the weekend, fresh legs coming in and they're further into their season.
"So when you're looking at that, I think they've got a real good chance if they get a decent result in that first leg."
Watch Shelbourne v Linfield in the Conference League play-off round on Thursday from 7.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on this game and Santa Clara v Shamrock Rovers on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app