Latest news with #JoeyO'Brien's
Irish Examiner
6 hours ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Shels, Shamrock Rovers, and Pats find out European routes
Shelbourne's potential route to the European group stages has been mapped out following Monday's draws at Uefa headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. Last week's completion of a 2-1 aggregate victory over Linfield advanced the League of Ireland title holders to the second round of the Champions League. A byproduct of progression is the guarantee of three extra European ties, ensuring two backdoors to the lucrative €3m group phase, were they to come up short against Qarabag. Joey O'Brien's side host the Azerbaijani champions in Wednesday's first leg at Tolka Park before making the long trek to Baku a week later. Group stage involvement has been a constant for Qarabag over the last 11 years but should they be rumbled by the Reds, the Irish kingpins will be rewarded by facing the winner of a tie between Macedonians Shkendija and FCBS, the club rebuilt from the ashes of 1986 champions Steaua Bucharest from Romania. Were stature and resources to apply, and Shels slip out of the supreme competition, awaiting them in the Europa League will be the loser of a Champions League clash between Ludogorets (Bulgaria) or Rijeka (Croatia). Failure to advance there still leaves them a third life of a Conference League playoff. Elsewhere, Shamrock Rovers have fared well by drawing either Ballkani of Kosovo or Malta's Floriana in the third round. They must first dispose of St Joseph's of Gibraltar, starting with Thursday's away leg. St Patrick's Athletic will also be favourites to see off Nomme Kalju of Estonia, kicking off at Richmond Park on Thursday, and will meet in the third round the loser of the tie between Ole Gunnar Solskjær's Besiktas or Shakhtar Donetsk if they prevail.
RTÉ News
16 hours ago
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Shelbourne learn possible third round Champions Lge tie
The winner of the second round Champions League qualifying tie between Shelbourne and Qarabag will take face Romanian side FCSB or Macedonian outfit KF Shkendija in the next round. The draw was made at UEFA headquarters in Nyon this morning, ahead of Joey O'Brien's side hoping to cause a big upset to overcome the Azerbaijani side. The Reds begin their second round tie at Tolka Park on Wednesday before travelling to Baku next week. FCSB are the modern equivalent of Steaua Bucuresti, having changed name due to ownership issues, and would be favourites to progress to round three. They reached the last 16 of last year's Europa League before losing to Lyon. Ironically Shels came close to drawing FCSB in the first round, but were instead paired with Linfield. Shels will also have a keen eye on the Europa League draw at 12pm which will inform them of a possible opponent should they lose to Qarabag. Elsewhere Shamrock Rovers and St Patrick's Athletic will be in the third round draw of the Conference League at 1pm . The Hoops are in Gibraltar this week to take on St Joseph's in the second round, while Pat's are at home to Estonian outfit Nomme JK Kalju.
The Irish Sun
4 days ago
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
Big TV boost for Shelbourne fans ahead of Champions League second round qualifier against Qarabag
SHELBOURNE fans will be delighted to hear that their first leg with Qarabağ will be shown on Premier Sports having been stuck on Wednesday with no TV coverage. Shelbourne face Qarabag in the next round of the Champions League qualifiers having overcome Linfield. 2 This is Shels' first Champions League campaign in 20 years 2 Qarabağ by-passed the first qualifying round for the second year in a row due to seeding The Reds A Chris Shields' penalty halved the deficit but it wasn't enough for the Belfast side as the champions of Ireland progressed. Joey O'Brien's side will now face Qarabag in Tolka Park on Wednesday July 23 for the first leg. The tie will be shown live on Read more on League of Ireland Coverage starts at 7:15pm for the 7:45pm kick-off with Aisling O'Reilly set to present alongside Kenny Cunningham and Dave Rodgers. Premier Sports is available as a part of a 'Sports Extra' pack on Sky and Now TV but is available to all Virgin Media members for free. Premier Sports founder and owner Mickey O'Rourke is a majority shareholder in Shelbourne FC, taking over the shares of Acun Media in November 2023. This coverage is a far cry from Wednesday night's Champions League clash when Shels fans who couldn't travel to Belfast were forced to fork out €15 to watch the match on a Linfield-run stream. Most read in Football It is not confirmed as of yet how the Auld Reds supporters will be able to watch the July 30 encounter with the Azerbaijani outfit as it appears no local channels will be showing it. This is not the first time Qarabağ have faced an Irish team in the second Champions League qualifying round with the side knocking Celtic star Daizen Maeda spotted doing press-ups in technical area after being subbed-off against Sporting Lisbon A The Azerbaijan League winners in 11 out of the last 12 seasons are no strangers to Champions League qualifiers. Qarabağ even qualified for the group stages of the competition - something an Irish team has never achieved - in 2017. They finished bottom of their group behind Roma, Chelsea and Athletico Madrid. In the 2023/24 season, Qarabağ reached the Round of 16 in the Europa League - the furthest they've ever got in Europe - facing Bayer Leverkusen. A 2-2 home draw was followed by a heartbreaking 3-2 away loss to end their Europa League campaign. The Karabakh based side qualified for the Europa League, league phase last year but could only record one win in eight games and finished in 36th place.
Irish Daily Mirror
5 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Linfield v Shelbourne LIVE stream info, score, from Champions League qualifier
Linfield host Shelbourne at Windsor Park in the second leg of their first-round qualifier in the Champions League as Joey O'Brien's side take a 1-0 lead to Belfast. Mipo Odubeko's goal is the difference between the sides heading into tonight's game in Belfast as he struck just before the hour mark at Tolka Park last Wednesday evening. O'Brien's side looked the more threatening for large parts last week but, Linfield were knocking on the door late on and both sets of fans will feel the tie is right in the balance with a second round qualifier the reward for advancing through. It's not the first time a team from the League of Ireland and the NIFL Premiership have met in Champions League qualifying action, with Glentoran taking on Waterford in the European Cup back in the 1970/71 season being the first. Speaking ahead of the game, boss O'Brien said: 'The lads have earned the right to be at this level, they did it last year. Now it's about going out and making sure you have no regrets.' Meanwhile, Linfield manager, David Healy said this week: 'We're still probably slightly behind the eight ball, but even if we had drawn last week, we still have to win the game.'
The Irish Sun
6 days ago
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
‘It's a motivation for us' – Sean Gannon feels no pressure as Shels represent LOI in Champions League
THE Champions League first round has become a tale of pressure and parachutes for League of Ireland clubs. 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. 2 Sean Gannon is no stranger to Champions League qualifiers having won the Premier Division 11 times 2 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. Read more on Irish football 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. Most read in Football 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. Celtic launch new away kit with trailer featuring Scottish music icon and Hoops legends 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.'
