24-07-2025
‘Make sure he knows you're ready for him' – Mark Coyle comments on strong tackle against Qarabag
MARK Coyle was determined to make his mark in Europe by whatever means necessary.
But he admitted Shelbourne were kicking themselves at how they allowed
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The 28-year-old is suspended for Shels' next league game due to picking up 10 yellow cards
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Qarabag's captain Abdellah Zoubir caused a lot of issues for the Reds in the first half
Forced off
But, with
And he made his presence felt on Abdellah Zoubir, although their captain had the last laugh, teeing up the second goal in their 3-0 win having also been involved in the first.
Coyle said: 'When you're on the bench, you're watching the game and seeing what you can do to impact it.
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'I obviously know the quality they have. Especially in the first half, I was thinking 'I don't want them running at me too much'.
'So when I came on - and I do think sometimes they don't like that, and he probably didn't - it's a way of, I don't know, making sure that you're at it and making sure he knows you're ready for him and that's all it really was. It was probably a bit of that.'
O'Brien labelled the Frenchman - who was brought on loan to Hibernian by Pat Fenlon - as probably the best player on the pitch but Coyle stopped short of calling him the best he had come up against.
He said: 'That's a good question actually definitely think there are a lot of players here, in this league actually, that would be as good.
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'But, for me maybe, in the second half maybe he tired a little bit so he wasn't as prominent. Look, I don't think it's a real fair assessment for me to give.
"You could ask me next week over there in the heat and I could be giving a totally different assessment of it.
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'In the second half we had a real go, you could see that in the chances we created.
"We had chances to equalise and I felt if anybody was on the ropes it was probably them at that stage. But that's the difference.
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'Maybe in the first half we played with a little bit too much respect or whatever it may be, especially at the start, but the second half we were well on top I felt, I felt in control but I think that's the times that it's so dangerous.
'We have to learn from that, especially in Europe, the quality of players you're coming up against, they punish any small mistakes. They mightn't even be mistakes really, so you really have to be at it for the full 90 minutes.
'They are a well-versed team in Europe, and you can see that in some of the things they did in slowing the game down. They're learnings that you can take from it.'
Although they will almost certainly exit the Champions League next week, Coyle is out to savour the experience and improve as they prepare to drop down to the Europa League.
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He said: 'We worked so hard last year to win the league and this is the reward for that. So this is time to really enjoy it and relish this opportunity.
'There is still a game to be played and we want to make sure that we put on a good performance and represent the club in the right way.'
