‘It's a motivation for us' – Sean Gannon feels no pressure as Shels represent LOI in Champions League
Since 2010, when Uefa introduced the incentive of winning your first tie to guarantee additional rounds even if you lost the next, the opening round has been squeaky-bum time.
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Sean Gannon is no stranger to Champions League qualifiers having won the Premier Division 11 times
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The 34-year-old has been reduced to just 16 league games this season due to some injury issues
Over the years, the bonus for winning the first round has become even greater where now you are guaranteed not one, but two parachutes where winning one additional tie secures group-stage football.
But while the possibilities are endless, the pressure also increases. Since 2012, the 13 League of Ireland champions have fallen at the first hurdle nine times.
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Of the four who cleared it, three went on to reach the group stages — Dundalk in 2016 and Shamrock Rovers in 2022 and last year — though those early rounds have remained nervy.
Ten-man
And tonight, Shelbourne visit Windsor Park to face Linfield with Joey O'Brien's men looking to come through when the heat is really on.
Forget the north-south dimension to the game — both clubs have done their best to do just that — and let's focus on the facts.
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Shelbourne are 1-0 up from the first leg and are in-season and looked the far better team last week. Linfield are in pre-season.
Tonight is worth €750,000 to the winners and those three guaranteed ties for the victors offer a great chance of turning that into €3.1million by reaching for the group stages.
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But from defender Seán Gannon, it is about the possibility rather than those pressures and parachutes.
The ten-time league winner, 34, has been through this round more than most — this is his ninth time in the last 11 years — and he insisted that it must be embraced.
Former Shamrock Rovers and Dundalk player Gannon — who won the league with Shels on the final night last season — said: 'I think we've shown as a group that we are resilient, how we got the league over the line last year under the biggest pressure situation . . .
'But I think pressure is probably not a word we'd be using, it's probably motivation. The rewards for getting through as a player are huge and obviously these are the games you want to be playing in.
'Every player in the league wants to be playing here in the Champions League and we're representatives of our league. It's not a pressure, it's a motivation for us.
'I've been lucky enough to be part of games like this and I know how valuable they are to your career, and to look back on in many years to come.
'It wouldn't be a pressure for us, it's definitely a motivation, a reward and a chance to showcase your talent really.'
FAR FROM OVER
Still, the defender knows how much hard work is to be done as he acknowledged Linfield will be almost as content with the narrow defeat last week as Shelbourne were with the 1-0 home win.
Gannon explained: 'From our side, it was important we won the game as a home team, it was important for us to take the game to Linfield and we did that.
'I can see from their side, the tie is still alive. That was instilled in us last week, how the whole thing is in the balance and how we need to be prepared for a game that is going to test us — 1-0 away from home in Europe does leave it all to play for.
'We need to approach the game with the same mentality we would always approach it. There's huge rewards. As a player, you want to progress in Europe, they are amazing games to be a part of.
'Our mentality is to treat this game . . . if you start putting games on a pedestal and preparing differently for certain games, you come away from what got us to this.'
PENALTY PREP
Boss O'Brien has made allowances for the occasion though, by making
But he acknowledged that even the best preparation cannot prepare you for the pressure of penalties, or having the right men on the pitch.
O'Brien said: 'I always think but it's mad that in most shootouts I've been involved in I've ended up taking one because you're on the pitch at the end of the game.
'If it goes to 120 minutes, it's attacking players, they're the ones who get taken off.
"So when you're going around to your five, it's probably not your first five. I think with the pressure at that moment, whether you practise them or not doesn't have any bearing.'
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