Linfield not motivated by Euro prize money

Yahoo

4 days ago

Linfield manager David Healy says his side are motivated by sporting "progress" rather than financial rewards in the Europa Conference League.
The Irish Premiership champions go into the second leg of their third qualifying round tie against Vikingur on Thursday trailing the Faroese side 2-1 on aggregate.
The game at Windsor Park [19:45 BST] will be streamed live on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website.
The winners of the tie will play Shelbourne, who have already beaten the Blues in a Champions League qualifier this season, for a spot in the league phase of Uefa's third-tier competition.
Despite the prize money on offer, and the impact it could have on Linfield's transfer activity, Healy says his side are not thinking about any financial implications.
"Financially for the football club it's huge, absolutely," said the former Northern Ireland striker.
"But for players and managers like myself, we're looking at progress through rounds.
"We want to make solid progress in rounds. That's our main objective."
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Healy, who was at Tolka Park to watch Shelbourne's defeat by Croatian champions Rijeka in the Europa League play-offs on Tuesday, said neither he nor his players would be distracted by the "hypothetical" of a rematch against the League of Ireland champions.
He added that, should the game to pass, Linfield's extra competitive action was no guarantee of a better outcome.
Linfield were beaten 2-1 on aggregate by Joey O'Brien's side in July but, at that stage, had only the Charity Shield under their belts while their opponents were deep into their domestic season.
"It wasn't an excuse for why we lost to Shelbourne. We never used that, personally." said Healy of a lack of match sharpness.
"I said before and after that we lost at the time to a better side.
"It wasn't through lack of fitness. People talk about the calendar and whatever else but there's no guarantee that if we were 24 games into the season and Shelbourne or Shamrock Rovers were one game in, that we would beat them."
If Linfield are to have the chance to face the Dublin outfit again, Healy says his side will need to make more of the opportunities they create on Thursday night.
Despite seeing plenty of the ball in the first leg last week, they had only Matthew Fitzpatrick's ninth-minute goal to show for their efforts.
"It was probably one of the few games in Europe where you get to dominate the ball. Normally you have to do a lot of work without it. " said Healy, whose side started their Irish Premiership title defence with a 3-0 win over Dungannon Swifts on Sunday.
"Hopefully [Thursday] night, if we move the ball quicker and into better areas, if we're sharper, with a little bit more intelligence, we should create the opportunities.
"They're coming with a lead, I imagine they'll try and defend that lead for as long as possible.
"What we don't need to do is win the game in the first 30/35 minutes. If we can get a goal early, of course, get it, bring it on, but if you can't you have to be patient and maybe wait a little bit longer."