LOI In Europe 2025

[SPXcyan]

What a night, rather surprised with the performance of Rovers out there, didn't look phased whatsoever! what a result! we could potentially have two clubs playing in the league phase? madness really.

[pineapple stu]

we could potentially have two clubs playing in the league phase?
Would that mean double the UEFA Solidarity funding btw? And again divvied out between the Premier sides only I guess?

[brendy_éire]

Rovers look like the better team to be honest, but SC are extremely dangerous on the break.

They do, and they don't. SC would be dangerous if they could shoot. Shocking finishing.

Sets it up nicely for Tallaght next week.

[geysir]

Agree with you there, no idea how Barrett only got a yellow for that. He’s deliberately handballed it and stopped a goal scoring opportunity (a near certain goal too you’d imagine)
I didn't think it was deliberate, it was just a handball and that's why there was no red card.

Brilliant performance from SR out in the mid Atlantic, no panic after going a goal down and put in a very confident and composed performance all the way through.

[culloty82]

What a night, rather surprised with the performance of Rovers out there, didn't look phased whatsoever! what a result! we could potentially have two clubs playing in the league phase? madness really.

If ​both Shels and Rovers did make the group phase, where would that leave us in the coefficient table?

[ger121]

I thought Rovers could get something over there. They are veterans in Europe at this stage.

Imagine 2 teams in the league stage. Tallaght would have a game weekly.

[Acornvilla]

If ​both Shels and Rovers did make the group phase, where would that leave us in the coefficient table?
Probably still 31st! 30th becomes a possibility thou, and the chance to close what used to be quite a huge gap towards the high 20's with some results in the league phase.

I only half watched the Rovers game but they were really excellent, they'd be grand in the Portuguese league!

[pineapple stu]

If ​both Shels and Rovers did make the group phase, where would that leave us in the coefficient table?
There's a long ways to go before we know that. As of now we're still 31st and a good way away from 30th. It's possible we won't rise any higher this season - Bulgaria still have three teams left for example.

Over the last season and a half though, we're 23rd and probably does mean something given most (but not all) of the countries below us have had their teams playing in the qualifiers too. It's by and large only the higher countries who have sides yet to start their campaigns.

[placid casual]

Oh ye of little faith.
Imagine being an Irish barstooler and getting all excited for an english league starting that doesn't give a $hite about them and just sees them as a consumer.
Everyone on this LOI forum will see things they'll never see.
KOH

[pineapple stu]

Worth noting that's only the third time an LoI side has won away to a top-ten ranked league in Europe

Bohs beating Kaiserslautern and Sligo v Motherwell were the other two instances.

In fact, it's only the tenth win away against a top-20 ranked European league

[Nesta99]

The handball is one that against you you'd be calling for red and in your favour it was accidental, peno and yellow punishment enough. Its the second penalty given away by Shels with the hand above the head and away from the body against Linfield and noted before not unlike the McCarthy effort in Deepdale many years ago the undid Shels. In both recent ties those penalties did and could toniht really have change the complexion of things. I feel it was deliberate due to the prevous Linfield goal wich was weak defending of a ball across the box and Barrett played the percentages and won on this one. Id like to say the tie was absolutely over but a home goal in Windsor and its game on as we know and Linfield are stronger. They will have a lot of regrets from these games between cards and missed chances/peno at key times. Their performance was more like what we would see as LoI in Europe against teams youd hope to compete with.

Rovers just seemed nonchalant, totally unfazed at the prospect of Portuguese opposition. Last years experience has counted and Id even say that Stephen Bradley's great news about his sons health this weeks had him relaxed and it fed through. Its definitely still in the mixer. Very LoI will be havin people biting nails with minutes to go next week. But just maybe we really have advantage and 2 sides qualifying. Shels will be a disaster not to qualify. Rovers, I'll still go 50/50 to progress as bar more comosure from Santa Clara it would be at least level.

[yurt]

If ​both Shels and Rovers did make the group phase, where would that leave us in the coefficient table?
As Stu said, we're most likely going to end up in 30th this year. Unless of course one of our sides end up going all the way the the semi finals of the conference league or something crazy.

But to help put it in perspective. If both sides were to play league phase and get 15-20 point between them I reckon it'll pretty much secure Europa League Football for the cup champions for the next 5 years.

If the LOI has another good season next year we'd be right in the mix for 29th and skip the first ECLQ1 altogether.

[Nesta99]

There's a long ways to go before we know that. As of now we're still 31st and a good way away from 30th. It's possible we won't rise any higher this season - Bulgaria still have three teams left for example.

Over the last season and a half though, we're 23rd and probably does mean something given most (but not all) of the countries below us have had their teams playing in the qualifiers too. It's by and large only the higher countries who have sides yet to start their campaigns.

Im going to use that and relative to the national sides FIFA ranking when someone starts blustering bs about LoI.

[2 Year Contract]

Its the second penalty given away by Shels with the hand above the head and away from the body against Linfield and noted before not unlike the McCarthy effort in Deepdale many years ago the undid Shels. In both recent ties those penalties did and could toniht really have change the complexion of things.

They also gave one of those stupid hand in the air penalties away against Pats on Sunday to give away a 2 goal lead early in the second half. A trend that I’m sure O'Brien will be pulling his… errr… eyebrows out over :)

[SkStu]

fair f*ckin f*cks like, pair of f*cks.

[pineapple stu]

They also gave one of those stupid hand in the air penalties away against Pats on Sunday to give away a 2 goal lead early in the second half. A trend that I’m sure O'Brien will be pulling his… errr… eyebrows out over :)
Go back far enough and they did the exact same thing when 3-0 up against Rangers in 98.

There's not learning and there's just being plain daft!

[geysir]

Was it not twice against Rangers? but those 2 handballs were absolutely daft and deliberate, this one was not in any way deliberate.

[ger121]

Shels would have liked a 3 goal lead when they went 2 up but still 3-1 is a healthy one. Linfield have terrible discipline issues. Would not surprise me if they went down to 10 in the 2nd leg.

You should read what the Portuguese think of the Santa Clara result. Did not see any mention of Irish Bakers but the general trend is they should not be losing to a side from Ireland and that the league really needs someone to step-up outside of the Top 4 and qualify for the CL.

[ger121]

Was it not twice against Rangers? but those 2 handballs were absolutely daft and deliberate, this one was not in any way deliberate.

Will Breidablik get the job done next week? I thought it was 3-1 in injury time but VAR must have ruled it out. You just can’t take any side for granted these days.

[Acornvilla]

As Stu said, we're most likely going to end up in 30th this year. Unless of course one of our sides end up going all the way the the semi finals of the conference league or something crazy.

But to help put it in perspective. If both sides were to play league phase and get 15-20 point between them I reckon it'll pretty much secure Europa League Football for the cup champions for the next 5 years.

If the LOI has another good season next year we'd be right in the mix for 29th and skip the first ECLQ1 altogether.
That's the double edged sword of doing too well, skip that round and we might lose a lot of points ;)

[geysir]

Will Breidablik get the job done next week? I thought it was 3-1 in injury time but VAR must have ruled it out. You just can’t take any side for granted these days.

3rd goal ruled out by a toenail. 15 corners to 1 this evening, unusual (Sham Rovers excepted) for a team to come to Iceland, park the bus and then celebrate a draw or even be pleased with a one goal defeat.
Breidablik have a plastic pitch but you would have thought it was a luxury mattress by the way theSammarinese players dropped down upon it. I'd say even with just the one goal advantage, Breidablik are still favorites to go through.

[brendy_éire]

Worth noting that's only the third time an LoI side has won away to a top-ten ranked league in Europe

Bohs beating Kaiserslautern and Sligo v Motherwell were the other two instances.

In fact, it's only the tenth win away against a top-20 ranked European league

Derry beating Gretna away would be another one? That's 19 years ago. Somehow.

[pineapple stu]

Scotland were ranked 11th that season, so it doesn't count for the top ten wins. It's in the top 20 obviously.

[2 Year Contract]

Scotland were ranked 11th that season, so it doesn't count for the top ten wins. It's in the top 20 obviously.
Was Scotland in the top 10 when Sligo beat Motherwell 3 years ago? They’re 17th now, some slide if so which I hadn’t noticed

[oriel]

That's the first win by any Irish side against a Portuguese club and has to be best ever away win by LOI.

Dundalk beat Zurich 2-0 away in 1963 EC - they were champions of Switzerland but they were also 3-0 up from first leg, this is completely different gravy for Rovers, what a result.

Honourable mentions for Bohs away to Kaiser.....and Aberdeen, both wins, Derry too hammering Gretna, Sligo away to Rosenborg and Motherwell, Shels v Rijeka (Croat), Pats v CSKA Sofia, all wins, but I think Rovers one eclipses all.

[KianD]

Was Scotland in the top 10 when Sligo beat Motherwell 3 years ago? They’re 17th now, some slide if so which I hadn’t noticed

The years without Rangers in Europe did significant damage to their rankings; and they ended up as low as 26th. Range 9<>26 over the last ten years, can't be many other leagues that have had that.

[sbgawa]

Im just hoping that it doesnt turn into a Molde scenerio where we had a great away win and then lost the Tie in Tallaght.
But im over the moon genuinely thought we would lose and when we went one down thought it was going ro be two or 3.
Full House and massive night ahead next week.
Great having the weekend off to.
Shels are long odds on Favs to go through now, be great craic if we both got through and drew each other......split the money and save on the travel bills :)

[2 Year Contract]

Im just hoping that it doesnt turn into a Molde scenerio where we had a great away win and then lost the Tie in Tallaght.
But im over the moon genuinely thought we would lose and when we went one down thought it was going ro be two or 3.
Full House and massive night ahead next week.
Great having the weekend off to.
Shels are long odds on Favs to go through now, be great craic if we both got through and drew each other......split the money and save on the travel bills :)

Can’t draw a club from your own country in the league phase

[pineapple stu]

Was Scotland in the top 10 when Sligo beat Motherwell 3 years ago? They’re 17th now, some slide if so which I hadn’t noticed
Ninth, yep. Rangers had reached the Europa League final the season before, which helped. The following year they got the worst CL group record ever (and Celtic only got two draws) and even with the CL bonus, that's not worth close to as many points.


That's the first win by any Irish side against a Portuguese club and has to be best ever away win by LOI.
I'd rank Bohs beating Kaiserslautern above it - they'd finished fifth in the Bundesliga (with much more strength in depth) and went on to reach the semis of the UEFA Cup that year. Yes, Bohs had already lost 3-1 at home, but still a better win than last night I think. (Not to diminish last night's win - and in any event I will of course claim Everton 1-0 UCD as the LoI's greatest away performance ever :) )

[sbgawa]

Can’t draw a club from your own country in the league phase


Not true we drew Larne and they are from Ireland as we have been trying to explain for 800 years ;)


I didnt know about that rule

[legendz]

Bohemians beat Kaiserlautern in the second leg away.

[culloty82]

Rovers currently projected to be second seeds:

https://i.imgur.com/IqgAbah.jpeg

[sbgawa]

if we manage to not do another Molde id be going ...
Fiorentina (H)
Palace (A)
Strasbourg (A)
Lincoln red imps (H)
Shkendija (A)
Hamrun Spartans (H)
Combination of nice trips and wineable home ties (except Fiorontina)

Now is the time to day dream

This is one area where co efficient doesnt help at all, We are as likely to draw any team as Shels,
We are a great draw potetialy for anyone out of Pot two if thats the way it pans out

[Straightstory]

That's the first win by any Irish side against a Portuguese club

Shels beat a Portuguese side, Belenenses, in 1964 in the Fairs Cup (forerunner of the UEFA Cup). Wikipedia says... 'Shels gained a highly credible 1–1 draw in Lisbon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisbon),[3] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelbourne_F.C._in_European_football#cite_note-3) and drew 0–0 at home. As the away goals rule (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Away_goals_rule) was not in place at the time, a toss of a coin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coin_flipping) was held to decide the venue for the play-off. Shels choose correctly, and won the play-off 2-1[citation needed (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)] giving the League of Ireland (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Ireland) its first major scalp in Europe'.

[Nesta99]

Why dont we have a club called Hamrun Spartans? Its perfect!

[ger121]

Why dont we have a club called Hamrun Spartans? It’s perfect!

The members group is called the 300 Club.

[pineapple stu]

Shels beat a Portuguese side, Belenenses, in 1964 in the Fairs Cup (forerunner of the UEFA Cup). Wikipedia says... 'Shels gained a highly credible 1–1 draw in Lisbon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisbon),[3] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelbourne_F.C._in_European_football#cite_note-3) and drew 0–0 at home. As the away goals rule (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Away_goals_rule) was not in place at the time, a toss of a coin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coin_flipping) was held to decide the venue for the play-off. Shels choose correctly, and won the play-off 2-1[citation needed (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)] giving the League of Ireland (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Ireland) its first major scalp in Europe'.
Bit like how no IL side has ever beaten an LoI side in Europe, though has knocked one out.

It is a bit mad that in 14 European games against IL opposition across five decades (70s, 80s, 00s, 10s and 20s), the LoI has never lost a single game. Linfield are the only side to have even drawn - Glentoran have lost all four games and Larne lost the one last year.

Pop foot.ie quiz FWIW - next week will be Linfield's tenth Euro game against LoI opposition. Only one other side has met LoI opposition in Europe ten times - any ideas?

[2 Year Contract]

Why dont we have a club called Hamrun Spartans? It’s perfect!

Quite a few LOI clubs through the years could’ve been candidates to change their name to Badlyrun Spartans anyways ;)

[sbgawa]

Bit like how no IL side has ever beaten an LoI side in Europe, though has knocked one out.

It is a bit mad that in 14 European games against IL opposition across five decades (70s, 80s, 00s, 10s and 20s), the LoI has never lost a single game. Linfield are the only side to have even drawn - Glentoran have lost all four games and Larne lost the one last year.

Pop foot.ie quiz FWIW - next week will be Linfield's tenth Euro game against LoI opposition. Only one other side has met LoI opposition in Europe ten times - any ideas?
Celtic?

[2 Year Contract]

Pop foot.ie quiz FWIW - next week will be Linfield's tenth Euro game against LoI opposition. Only one other side has met LoI opposition in Europe ten times - any ideas?
Levadia Tallinn? Played Cork and Dundalk around 2017/18, Dundalk again a few years later and I think Bohs drew them more than once in the early 2000s also

[pineapple stu]

Nope on Celtic - 8 games.

Levadia Tallinn is an interesting one. I have six games for them, four for FCI Levadia Tallinn, and two for Levadia Maardu. Wiki suggests they might actually be all the same club though. In which case that's our new leader with 12 games

So good call on that. But still leaves us looking for the other club that's played LoI sides 10 times.

[2 Year Contract]

Nope on Celtic - 8 games.

Levadia Tallinn is an interesting one. I have six games for them, four for FCI Levadia Tallinn, and two for Levadia Maardu. Wiki suggests they might actually be all the same club though. In which case that's our new leader with 12 games

So good call on that. But still leaves us looking for the other club that's played LoI sides 10 times.

Yeah they’re all the same club, they underwent a few name changes which is quite common in Eastern European football. I had a look there and forgot Drogheda played them too so you’re right with 12 games

[pateen]

Worth noting that's only the third time an LoI side has won away to a top-ten ranked league in Europe

Bohs beating Kaiserslautern and Sligo v Motherwell were the other two instances.

In fact, it's only the tenth win away against a top-20 ranked European league

What about St Pat's beating some outback side in Russia around 15 years ago?

[pineapple stu]

They lost in Russia. But by coming back from 3-0 down to lose 3-2, they went through on away goals.

[Philosophizer]

So good call on that. But still leaves us looking for the other club that's played LoI sides 10 times.

Molde? Seems like we’ve seen a LOT of them over the past few years.

[sbgawa]

Yeah they’re all the same club, they underwent a few name changes which is quite common in Eastern European football. I had a look there and forgot Drogheda played them too so you’re right with 12 games


The Cork city of their league

[pineapple stu]

Molde? Seems like we’ve seen a LOT of them over the past few years.
Eight games times in the past 12 years alright, but nothing before that. I guess 10 if you include UCD v Molde in the Youth League, but not the one I was thinking of.

Getting closer though.

[kksaints]

Nope on Celtic - 8 games.

Levadia Tallinn is an interesting one. I have six games for them, four for FCI Levadia Tallinn, and two for Levadia Maardu. Wiki suggests they might actually be all the same club though. In which case that's our new leader with 12 games

So good call on that. But still leaves us looking for the other club that's played LoI sides 10 times.

Djurgardens or Legia Warsaw maybe.

[OMTY]

Eight games times in the past 12 years alright, but nothing before that. I guess 10 if you include UCD v Molde in the Youth League, but not the one I was thinking of.

Getting closer though.
Rosenborg?

[Philosophizer]

Djurgardens or Legia Warsaw maybe.

Very good shouts. Slovan Bratislava have had quite a few ties too. I can remember at least 3. Rosenborg have had plenty too. We’ve also had a lot of draws against Iceland in recent years, but their teams don’t repeat as often - maybe Stjarnan?