LoI in Europe 2024

Can’t say how much I enjoyed Thursday but the two daft goals still really frustrate me. I got down to Putney Bridge area, as kindly suggested here, at around 6 to see the Rovers fans being escorted en masse over the bridge towards Chelsea. I presume they walked the whole way to the stadium. The police presence was very heavy all night, probably rightly so. I still wore my colours though - but zipped up my coat in the stadium area. I was in the home section.

Got the tube back from Putney Bridge to Fulham Broadway where we had a couple of pints before going in. The Rovers fans were being escorted into the ground at this point, greeted by F the IRA chants from the home fans in the concourse area.

I took my seat in the East Lower in the section beside the Rovers end. Both defensive calamities happened just in front of me as did the bogroll barrage at the corner flag. I couldn’t help go “Yes” when Poom scored and immediately two stewards quite forcefully reprimanded me. Lovely Chelsea fella in front of me told them to chill, nobody cared and it’s only football etc.

Atmosphere was pretty tasty though. Republican chanting isn’t to my taste but at the same time I loved how the Rovers fans showed no respect for who they were playing or where.

I hope many more nights at places like this lie ahead, for all Irish teams.

My photos are on X if anyone cares.

What are the dates for the 2 Molde games, and are they confirmed now?

13th and 20th Feb. The aviva match against bohs is the 16th

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Originally Posted by sbgawa

13th and 20th Feb. The aviva match against bohs is the 16th

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Thanks. Home or away first?

Away first, benefit of finishing top sixteen

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Originally Posted by legendz

9 points was a fair expectation after the league phase draw. Rovers in fairness delivered and picked up 2 bonus points along the way.
Molde were in pot 2 when the league phase draw was made. Higher than APOEL and Rapid Vienna. Molde beat Larne 3-0 (H), lost 2-1 to Gent (A), lost 3-0 to Jagiellonia Bia?ystok (A) ranked lower than Borac, lost 0-1 to APOEL (H), drew 2-2 with HJK (A) and beat Mladá Boleslav 4-3 (H) ranked lower than Rovers. No world beaters on that form but will be a tough test.
Rovers have already done great. Getting to the Round of 16 would cap it off and reflect well on the league around Europe.

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Rover's can definitely take them, but I'd be worried in the off season that one squad will improve and one will really struggle to stay at its current level.

Based on quality of opposition, ease of access to away leg, cost of trip to away leg, attractiveness of town for away leg…… all point to very disappointing draw on what was a 50/50 hit.

only positive is that they’re out of season too but think it’s gonna be v tough. Need to manage 1st leg

17.45 kick off. Not too bad

If Rovers still had a few of the big hitters they lost, you would fancy them over the 2 legs.
No idea what state Molde would be in pre-season,so very hard to gauge. They did lose to Pat’s of course but could have had the tea-lady starting in that game for all we know. All I can say is they were really poor in the League stage and snuck in at the end.
If the tie is still in the balance for the 2nd leg then there is a chance as Rovers do a have a good home record.

PP have Molde as 1/3 odds on to qualify, not sure I`d agree those odds, would make Molde slight favs though, but Rovers still have a good chance i think.

We played them in 2020, went 1-0 up or back to 1-1 in Tallaght, but lost both games ,they were big lads I remember that.

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Originally Posted by ger121

If Rovers still had a few of the big hitters they lost, you would fancy them over the 2 legs.
No idea what state Molde would be in pre-season,so very hard to gauge. They did lose to Pat’s of course but could have had the tea-lady starting in that game for all we know. All I can say is they were really poor in the League stage and snuck in at the end.
If the tie is still in the balance for the 2nd leg then there is a chance as Rovers do a have a good home record.

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Just on the Pats match v Molde. I’d be surprised if they didn’t have pretty much their first 11 out. I’m assuming the whole purpose, from their point of view, was to play an Irish side before playing Rovers. In that context it really wouldn’t make sense for them to play a seriously weakened team. So I would take the result as a positive omen for Rovers.

Bit mad that Molde are seven weeks out from the start of their league campaign still. There's pre-season and there's six week out.

Seems a long way out alright, not sure where most Norwegian clubs based but Molde in Central Norway, I'd say their league starting is due to climate.

Looked it up, avg temp is still only 0c in March !:cold:

Been a very poor off season for us. No idea what to expect tbh

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Bit mad that Molde are seven weeks out from the start of their league campaign still. There's pre-season and there's six week out.

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Makes sense with their weather though. I've just checked and every night this week has below zero temperatures, with daytimes not much higher. Plus Molde are only a quarter of the way up the country in terms of latitude. There are 4 teams located further north than them - 2 of which are in the far north, inside the Arctic circle (Bodo/Glimt and Tromso/TIL). So you can see why they leave it until the Spring to start their season.

See that shamock rovers are above the club rankings than molde. If rovers had their same squad from end of last season I would give them a chance. Now Im not sure on what to predict.

Looks like we may to have to name next years thread 'LOI in Europe 25/26'.

I was more confident about this tie a month ago from a Rovers perspective. Part of me feels Molde will be much more used to this off-season approach so will know how to approach it. The other part of me thinks that if it's both teams first game this season the rust will favour the away team if they can sneak out with a clean sheet.

Not sure what will happen up there on Thursday. On paper i think we are weaker this season coming but lots of our so called big names were weapon for most of Last Season. Mandriou now needs to step up and show us all the promise from a few years back. Jack needs to get back to the player he was when in the Ireland squad, you would hope/think Matthews at the back is a step up from Sean Hoare, Danny Grant not sure what to expect and Michael Noonan 10 novenas being done each night to make him as good as young kenny.

9/1 to win seems pretty big all the same

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Originally Posted by Nah Nah Nah Nah

9/1 to win seems pretty big all the same

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Rovers not one for the away wins in Europe, so I am not surprised they are out to 9/1. A draw would be an excellent result.