Ah but this Rovers team has had 4 or 5 European games as a group now against teams with different styles and varying multiples of budgetary superiority. They should be well able to go out and impose themselves against the likes of AC Milan or some chumps like the back to back double Slovakian champions away from home in 36 degree heat. Anything else is poor, poor, poor....
Gutting to lose the tie but the performance yesterday was encouraging for the rest of Europe and more importantly, the league. Having Joey back made a huge difference and Towell looked a lot sharper than he did in the away leg or the Dundalk game. It makes a difference when you have your best team available and match fit. We lost a bit when O'Neill went off but on balance certainly deserved to win the game and maybe deserved extra time if you look at both legs as a whole.
Ref wasn't great in the second half (poor tackles on Burke and O'Neill were ignored but O'Neill could also have gone for a second yellow) and I think Lopes was actually fouled twice for their goal (arm in the back and the trip) but I can see how the ref thought it was more of a tangle. Ironically that's how I think the peno-that-wasn't against Dundalk also panned out. Scales probably pushed and tripped Duffy but from the refs perspective it looked like they both brought each other down and Duffy didn't actually have the ball. If you slow it down Duffy had gotten a beautiful touch in front of Scales to control the ball and direct it away right before his leg brings Scales down on top of him. So we've had some bad and good luck. I'd have traded a peno to Dundalk for a chance to go through in the CL though.
