League of Ireland in Europe 2016

[pateen]

It will be a travesty against football if the likes of Chris Shields and Daryl Horgan are not selected for the national team, another great display from both of them. Speaking of the national team, they way that this Dundalk side go about their style of play just makes the national team look an embarrassment in honesty.

Didnt think DH played all that great .... but what a game.
Shame Dundalk got nothing out of it

[legendz]

Good LOI teams like Dundalk now, and Rovers in 2011, need better competition in their own league in order to improve performances in Europe. In that way they will be competitive in the qualifying stages.Cork are good for league. They've put up a decent challenge and are keeping the champions honest.

Dundalk's approach has been a breath of fresh air. Fenlon while in charge of Shels used to lament crowds only coming for their European games. While understandable, it lacked a grounded connect with those coming to those games. Dundalk management and players have represented the league greatly on and off the field.

[Charlie Darwin]

Hard luck Dundalk. I thought the goal came at an awful time - if they hadn't got that I think they'd have crumpled like BATE.

[oriel]

I thought Chris Shields was absolutely outstanding last night taking the role of the injured O'Donnell. The fact that he was up against Witsel just showed the enormity of his task, and he did very little wrong. You can usually tell with Shields from the first 5 or 10 mins how his game will go, last night it was almost flawless. His passing and driving runs were high quality.

What an improvement on a player that was going nowhere in 2012 with Dundalk.

Strange feeling coming out of the game, being a little disappointed but overall I think Zenit did enough to win the match. Dundalk will probably need to beat AZ in Tallaght and get a result in Tel Aviv to qualify.

A very tall order but not impossible.

[JayC90]

Quick update on the co-efficients and seedings for next season's Champions League, now that we know Dundalk (5.815) will definitely be representing Ireland. As I said in a previous post (http://foot.ie/threads/210651-League-of-Ireland-in-Europe-2016?p=1892041&viewfull=1#post1892041), Dundalk need 22 teams with a lower co-efficient than themselves to qualify for next year's CL to be seeded. The Finnish League concluded favourably for Dundalk yesterday with IFK Mariehamn (2.030) winning the league ahead of HJK Helsinki (10.530), which increases the number of confirmed teams in next season's CL with co-efficients below Dundalk to 17. If Dundalk get another draw and increase their own co-efficient that will go up to 20 (requiring 2 more leagues to be won by a team with a lower co-efficient that Dundalk), and another win will bring it up to 21 (requiring just 1 more league etc.). The Swedish League (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Allsvenskan#League_table) concludes on 6 November and Dundalk will be hoping for an IFK Norrkoeping (4.945) win there. Still a long way to go in the traditional winter season leagues but the Slovakian, Moldovan and Hungarian leagues look relatively promising with low co-efficient teams all leading at this stage. I'd imagine that at least one of them, or indeed another league, will finish favourably for Dundalk so it looks like 1 more win the Europa League group stage will almost certainly secure seeding in next year's CL, barring some extreme misfortune.

[sparky12345678]

also check out the Austrian league, still very early days yet but Sturm Graz is leading/playing well, Sturm Graz is who we want to win it. 6.2 is higher than Dundalk atm but even a draw would be enough...

[El-Pietro]

I dunno, I don't really want any of these tough teams dropping down in the Europa League!

[pineapple stu]

And I want Sturm Graz to win because they're winning the underage league as well. :)

[JayC90]

also check out the Austrian league, still very early days yet but Sturm Graz is leading/playing well, Sturm Graz is who we want to win it. 6.2 is higher than Dundalk atm but even a draw would be enough...

And in Poland (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016%E2%80%9317_Ekstraklasa#Regular_season), the current top 7 teams all have a coefficient of 4.750 or less.

[oriel]

Jay, what round do you think Dundalk will enter next years CL? We started in round 2 this season.

[El-Pietro]

Jay, what round do you think Dundalk will enter next years CL? We started in round 2 this season.

The same round the Polish Champions enter.

[jinxy lilywhite]

Jay, what round do you think Dundalk will enter next years CL? We started in round 2 this season.

Personally I am hoping the europa league champions will go straight to the group stages of the CL. ;) ;)

[seand]

And in Poland (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016%E2%80%9317_Ekstraklasa#Regular_season), the current top 7 teams all have a coefficient of 4.750 or less.

The Polish league is absolutely bonkers. At the minute nearly all the big teams are bottom half, but there's only 4 points between the bottom 12. Legia had a disastrous start and sacked their manager while in the bottom two, now they've a reasonable chance of pushing for the title if they get their sh1t together.

Looks like Dundalk will need another win or two draws to get seeded, which will be a tough ask. 1 draw would at least guarantee we'd be ahead of the champions of Iceland, Albania and Lithuania too. We need to be ranked ahead of 17 other teams in the second qualifying round. By my calculations we're already ahead of 12 at the minute- the 4 first round qualifiers and the champions of NI, Macedonia, Lux, Latvia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Finland and Georgia.

[El-Pietro]

Cork City U19 at home to AS Roma U19 tonight. Big night for the young players and there is a lot of excitement around this game. We had 1200ish for the Helsinki game, I'm hopeful we can top 2,000 for this game. Not too hopeful of a result though as Roma are effectively professional while our lads have school and part time jobs. They have been training a lot more over the past couple of weeks though.
Tickets available at €5 for adults and €1 for kids. Kick off at 7 pm.

[White Horse]

Tough game for the young Cork lads tonight. Its a pity it is not on TV as it is tremendous for an Irish team to be competing at this level.

Best of luck.

[swinfordfc]

It's great for the Cork lads tonight and the very best of luck tonight!

[patrickccfc]

City 1-1 Roma so far.. City just had a penalty saved too

[patrickccfc]

Attendance is 3,014. Cracking crowd

[patrickccfc]

2-1 Roma. Into the last ten minutes

[White Horse]

Finished 3-1 to Roma. The penalty miss was pivotal.

[Yossarian]

Attendance is 3,014. Cracking crowd

That's a fantastic crowd. Pity about the result. Seemed to be harsh in the end.

[patrickccfc]

FT 3-1. Late goal a kick in the teeth there. Fantastic effort from city no shame in that

[White Horse]

FT 3-1. Late goal a kick in the teeth there. Fantastic effort from city no shame in that

Cork appeared to be competitive and well in the game. Against such good opposition, that is good going.

[Charlie Darwin]

Sounds like they were very unlucky. Even at 2-1 they might have had a glimmer, but that's a huge ask.

[Hitman]

Even allowing for my massive bias, 3-1 to City would have been a fair reflection, some proper stereotypical cynicism from Roma too. Fantastic effort from our lads, they're an exceptional group.

[Charlie Darwin]

If Cork's u19s are this good, just imagine how good UCD's must be.

[patrickccfc]

If Cork's u19s are this good, just imagine how good UCD's must be.

If ucd u19s are that good.. dundalks future is in good hands

[SkStu]

Legia just 5 minutes away from beating Real in Warsaw. Really puts the Dundalk performances this season into sharp context. Well done.

[Hitman]

If Cork's u19s are this good, just imagine how good UCD's must be.

It's BJ Banda smashing every goalscoring record in Serie A that I'm looking forward to.

[El-Pietro]

At one one City were the better side. Massive deflection looped the ball over the city keepers head. Third goal came while we were chasing the game.

The equalised was a cracking goal.

UCD aren't as good as Citys U19s. Our record in the southern division proves that.

[ToberonaTornado]

Hard luck Cork City,really a very good effort against a very good Roma side.Cracking attendance

[ToberonaTornado]

I'm working tomorrow so if anyone gets a good stream going early for Zenit v Dundalk post it up or throw it in the pm's.
TIA.
Underway @ 6pm

[sadloserkid]

Personally I thought Roma were just about worth their win for a finish though they were seriously wobbling for the first twenty minutes or so of the second half. 3-1 was cruel though. City were very good overall and very unlucky with both the first goal (calamity stuff from a keeper who made several excellent stops both last night and against HJK) and the second one (the deflection was cruel but the red-haired lad needlessly caught in possession in the build up caused it really). Third goal was just a case of City having to push on and getting caught. City goal was taken excellently too, wasn't an easy finish but it was emphatic. Some decent players in that City side, well disciplined and gave it everything. The attendance was great and they made decent noise (Family enclosure kinda led the way there).

I have no idea why the penalty was given, at first I actually thought it was given as a goal with the ball having crossed the line. Anybody able to clear it up?

Roma's number 6 and 7 were the two who stood out as being particularly cynical. 6 went beyond cynicism at one point though and spat at the Cork 14 (seemingly out of nowehere) which is always ugly to see. Cork player showed admirable restraint.

All in all, an awful lot of positives for Cork to take from last night.

[El-Pietro]

No clue why the penalty was given. I was right behind the goal and none of us knew what happened. Assume it was for a jersey pull or a shove?

[disgruntled]

Personally I thought Roma were just about worth their win for a finish though they were seriously wobbling for the first twenty minutes or so of the second half. 3-1 was cruel though. City were very good overall and very unlucky with both the first goal (calamity stuff from a keeper who made several excellent stops both last night and against HJK) and the second one (the deflection was cruel but the red-haired lad needlessly caught in possession in the build up caused it really). Third goal was just a case of City having to push on and getting caught. City goal was taken excellently too, wasn't an easy finish but it was emphatic. Some decent players in that City side, well disciplined and gave it everything. The attendance was great and they made decent noise (Family enclosure kinda led the way there).

I have no idea why the penalty was given, at first I actually thought it was given as a goal with the ball having crossed the line. Anybody able to clear it up?

Roma's number 6 and 7 were the two who stood out as being particularly cynical. 6 went beyond cynicism at one point though and spat at the Cork 14 (seemingly out of nowehere) which is always ugly to see. Cork player showed admirable restraint.

All in all, an awful lot of positives for Cork to take from last night.


No clue why the penalty was given. I was right behind the goal and none of us knew what happened. Assume it was for a jersey pull or a shove?

Penalty was give because the Roma player had his hands wrapped around the City player. There could have been others as well.

Some of the antics from the Roma players showed everything that's wrong with football. Its even affecting the game at this level.
Pulling & dragging, off the ball incidents, spitting among other things.
That Roma keeper was very lucky some of the locals didn't get a hold of him. A Roma official came on the pitch after the game was over to drag him off.

Don't know where the officials were from but to say they were brutal would be kind to them.
There were times when the referee was completely out of his depth. Its was credit to the City players that they kept their heads. The Roma number 11 gave the referee some fierce abuse. Shouting & gesturing in his face. I thought at one stage he was going to hit him.

Overall the game was really enjoyable.
Roma were technically excellent & were bigger physically that the City players. It was just their attitude & cynicism which left them down.
Some very good prospects in that City side if they continue to progress.
As others have said a fantastic attendance of over 3000 at the game.

[pateen]

I'm working tomorrow so if anyone gets a good stream going early for Zenit v Dundalk post it up or throw it in the pm's.
TIA.
Underway @ 6pm

Mee too

[White Horse]

The Dundalk-Zenit game is being broadcast live in 59 countries.

http://en.fc-zenit.ru/news/feed/2016/11/01/zenit-dandolk-vstrechu-pokazhut-v-59-stranakh-mira/

[Burnsie]

any idea how many Dundalk fans have travelled?

A buddy of mine (not a big football fan) happened to find himself in St Petersburg on holidays and, unable to get a ticket in the Dundalk end (unsurprisingly), has eventually decided to bite the bullet and pile in with the Russians....

[Pablo Escobar]

The Dundalk-Zenit game is being broadcast live in 59 countries.

http://en.fc-zenit.ru/news/feed/2016/11/01/zenit-dandolk-vstrechu-pokazhut-v-59-stranakh-mira/

Good luck to Dundalk tonight. I really hope you win, and celebrate long, long into the night! :p

[swinfordfc]

Dundalk wont get nothing tonight - sorry but it's going to be a really tough game tonight - just hope AZ get a draw or win in Israel tonight and that would leave Dundalk still second on head to head so far?

[Yossarian]

Dundalk wont get nothing tonight

So what you're saying is, we will get something.

[swinfordfc]

So what you're saying is, we will get something.

No, they will get beaten tonight!

[White Horse]

Dundalk: Rogers; Gannon, Gartland, Boyle, Massey; Mountney, Finn, Shields, Horgan; McEleney; McMillan

O'Donnell on the bench. It was expected that he would be rested for the cup final.

[Charlie Darwin]

No, they will get beaten tonight!
So you're saying they will get something?

[ToberonaTornado]

Lads,eir Sport are ATM just smashing up the old worn formula of coverage of LOI/EURO games as we use to know it and are currently providing brilliant & unique behind the scenes footage from Saint Petersburgh on their FB & Twitter platforms that will have Royal NEW Gent and his lacks at RTE spinning out of control tonight.its fecking brilliant.

[Longfordian]

Come on the Town.

Hopefully Dundalk do well too.

[paul_oshea]

Any stream?

[pineapple stu]

The orange ball is back!

Great to see. Much missed since the 80s/early 90s.

[bennocelt]

Any stream?

http://realstreamunited.tv/soccer/zenit-st-petersburg-x-dundalk-rsu31f23b?l=2991795209
works for me

[ToberonaTornado]

http://www.stream2watch.cc/live-sports/football/zenit-saint-petersburg-vs-dundalk-fc-live-stream