LoI in Europe 2024

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Originally Posted by Acornvilla

Nice to see a team get a result when they probably shouldn't have for once :D

Keeping it at 1-0 was huge, they've let more than a few games quickly run away from them in the past. Next game is massive.

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100% i thought we were poor to be honest even before the sending off, created nothing really but its a draw and we'll take it for sure, we've lost games in the past we should have got a result.
The amount of sendings off is worrying , although at least Farrugia will be well rested for Sunday :)
as said above 7 points will get through to next stage and its there for us with LArne and TNS
Winning away in Europe isnt easy but hopefully the team can treat this more like a match in Galway , stick to the normal match day routine and get the win.

Vital point against the odds so credit where its due. TNS and Larne wont be easy though even if expectation is there, not sure Rovers have shown enough consistency in good form to really go beyond the old 1 game at a time thing.

APOEL were tidy enough in possession but didn't have the real artistry to open us up, Bradley clearly adapted the approach of a low block and hit them on the break,akin to the away vikingur game. The Rovers back 5 looked edgy for the first 20 mins but dealt ok with the threats afterwards. Farrugia was stupid to get sent off although 1st yellow was ridiculous by the ref
Pohls kept Rovers in the game after they scored and then the corner delivery by Byrne and the smallest guy on the pitch getting up to score a last minute header in front of us in the South Stand? Beautiful.

Great result for Rovers. Keeps them going for qualification if they get wins vs Larne, Borac, and TNS... Which is possible.

A fantastic moment for them but...In saying that, thought they were poor. Game had very little zip, and if I was an APOEL fan, I would be raging about not putting them away.

Kenny up front looks a real talent. Most dangerous player on the park. Gave Rovers an outlet. Should have won them a penalty earlier, but was too honest. Would drive me crazy... defender makes a mistake by trying to foul the player, he should be punished.

Rovers also have some bench with Greene, Watts, Towell and Jack Byrne coming on. Shows the value in it by keeping themselves in the game to nick something at the end.

Always a debate in football in how you spend your resources. And with this current phase of the Rovers team looking to be a transitional phase... will be very interesting to see how they go forward.

I guess they are definitely keeping Kenny with buy clause in the loan agreement? Celtic would also be little mad to let him go for nothing if he becomes a proven Conference League player at his age.

That's a great result for Rovers. I was just following stats from time to time and it didn't paint a pretty picture, especially with them going down a man (seriously though, can they not go one match in Europe without a S/O?). But absolutely fair play. You'd imagine there's 7-10 pts for them to aim at now. The lack of interest by RTE and Virgin never gets any less tiresome though. Grand Design or The Chase, but no LOI on one of it's bigger nights to be showcased.

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Originally Posted by CorribsideSteve

That's a great result for Rovers. I was just following stats from time to time and it didn't paint a pretty picture, especially with them going down a man (seriously though, can they not go one match in Europe without a S/O?). But absolutely fair play. You'd imagine there's 7-10 pts for them to aim at now. The lack of interest by RTE and Virgin never gets any less tiresome though. Grand Design or The Chase, but no LOI on one of it's bigger nights to be showcased.

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Coms on the stream I was watching mentioned that in the first 20 minutes or so, it was 10-1 in terms of passes made in favour of APOEL, but Rovers got it to 2-1 by half time. The game had become very even, hard to know what would have happened but for the red card, but they had slowly worked their way in to it before then.


Important to note, Ireland passed Kosovo in the coefficient table! Armenia got a win and Latvia a very unexpected draw if I'm not mistaken, so it will continue to be tight, and results v Larne/TNS are incredibly important.

That's good to know. At one point early on there was 81-19 for possession, so fair play to them for weathering it out. Pohls beginning to stand up and be counted as a solid keeper now.

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Originally Posted by CorribsideSteve

That's a great result for Rovers. I was just following stats from time to time and it didn't paint a pretty picture, especially with them going down a man (seriously though, can they not go one match in Europe without a S/O?). But absolutely fair play. You'd imagine there's 7-10 pts for them to aim at now. The lack of interest by RTE and Virgin never gets any less tiresome though. Grand Design or The Chase, but no LOI on one of it's bigger nights to be showcased.

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What's tiresome is people deliberately not understanding TV rights. Premier Sports have exclusive rights to the ECL League Phase and are host broadcasters for Rovers home games. Both RTÉ and VM gave considerable coverage across their News bulletins and online.

On the game itself I thought Bradley got it spot on and we fully deserved the draw as APOEL, who were levels above us first half, dropped off after they scored and Rovers started winning 50/50s and getting to second balls - the changes then made all the difference. Even Richie Towell did very well when he came on, got us up the pitch repeatedly.

Johnny Kenny is a special player, maturing in front of our eyes this season, great to see (if we can hang on to him). Shout outs too to Josh Honohan and Leon Pohls who has been fantastic in Europe this season.

First point on the board, €133,000 in the bank, good night's work.

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Originally Posted by holidaysong

I thought it was brain dead from him. Some risk to take when you're on a yellow.

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Ah it was instinctive, and it was very soft. His contribution to the handbags incident for the first yellow was minor too. Each was barely a yellow, together it was a terribly harsh sending off. The ref can set the bar higher for a second yellow and I think he handled each incident badly - despite overall having a good game I think.

That said, I tweeted during the game - before the first yellow I think - that I feel Farrugia at wing back was the wrong positional selection. Domestically wing back for Rovers really means winger, attacking full back, but against a slick team like Apoel it's going to be a very defensive role. Why pick your fastest player, likely to be the fastest player on the pitch, in a deep role when having him higher up the pitch would make him more dangerous and keep one or two opposition players further back to absorb his counter-attacking threat?

Wins over Larne and TNS should tee up the Borac game as the one to potentially secure advancement from the group stage.

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Originally Posted by legendz

Wins over Larne and TNS should tee up the Borac game as the one to potentially secure advancement from the group stage.

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Larne and TNS will also fancy themselves against us. Great result in the end but i though we were **** poor for the 1st half hour with POOM and Nugent chasing shadows. We needed either Byrne or Watts in from the start to give us a player that can pick that pass to kenny. Farrugia is as someone rightly pointed out a winger and so expecting him to play that defensive role required on European nights was perhaps a little naïve.

Very poor alright, no bite in the team until towards the end.
Great result though.

Is Byrne out of favour?

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Originally Posted by Nesta99

Vital point against the odds so credit where its due. TNS and Larne wont be easy though even if expectation is there, not sure Rovers have shown enough consistency in good form to really go beyond the old 1 game at a time thing.

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Gotta agree with this.
TNS and Larne will not be easy. Rovers will be doing extremely well to get 6 points, given their form this season. We’ll probably never have a better draw for a LOI team in the competition proper, but LOI teams can never just expect wins in Europe, no matter the opponent.
I fear some might be getting ahead of themselves.

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Originally Posted by legendz

Wins over Larne and TNS should tee up the Borac game as the one to potentially secure advancement from the group stage.

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Agree great plan, that should be what Bradley & the team should aim for. A further play-off game or straight into the last 16 round would be a great achievement for a LOI club.

By the by, what was the attendance, as APOEL had well over 500 flag waving fans! If

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Originally Posted by nr637

Agree great plan, that should be what Bradley & the team should aim for. A further play-off game or straight into the last 16 round would be a great achievement for a LOI club.

By the by, what was the attendance, as APOEL had well over 500 flag waving fans! If

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Attendance was 7111

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Originally Posted by pateen

Very poor alright, no bite in the team until towards the end.
Great result though.

Is Byrne out of favour?

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He has been very good lately coming back into form, i assumed when i saw the team with Byrne and Watts on the bench and no Burke that this was a nod towards Sundays match against Shels.
I would be hopeful of Burke, Byrne, Farrugia (given he only played 50 minutes) and Clarke starting

7 and even 6 is the projected cut-off for Top 24 so if they could get 2 wins in the TNS and Larne games, that should get them over the line.

Thought Premier Sports coverage of the Rovers game was very good. I would have being aware of Aishling OReilly from OTB and thought she was excellent. Great to see Ronan Finn being calm and modest when the Rovers fans were serenading him!

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Originally Posted by Philosophizer

Gotta agree with this.
TNS and Larne will not be easy. Rovers will be doing extremely well to get 6 points, given their form this season. We’ll probably never have a better draw for a LOI team in the competition proper, but LOI teams can never just expect wins in Europe, no matter the opponent.
I fear some might be getting ahead of themselves.

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I don't think anyone is saying they will win both, but they really should if they play well, and need to try to, they might never get a draw like this again for all we know, need to capitalize on it. They're a far more experienced side at this level, and our league is clearly stronger, It's a one off cup game, so things go wrong, but there's so much on the line and the fixtures don't fall at awful times, so I think Rovers will go for wins. Larne and TNS are already both experiencing a bit of a fixture pileup, and are probably going to really struggle to cope with the match load as time progresses.

Extra co eff points for making it a round further could be massive for themselves in future years regarding seeding too and if they ended up in the middle of the pack, they might not even draw a huge club. They do get points for every round they navigate right? I was trying to look it up earlier but couldn't find what I was looking for.

Hopefully this new format and the changes over the past few years + improved Irish seeding will mean this situation becomes pretty regular, I'm looking forward to seeing matches v the neighbors :D

Just had a look at their fixtures, TNS have to play 9 games between now and their match v Rovers who have 5. Larne is 3 v 2. For both games Rovers have extra days rest beforehand as well. I think those things will matter. It'll be interesting to see if both of them are able to cope and retain their domestic titles, a big chance for other clubs in the North and Wales to get themselves in the CL spot.

I think we should be expecting LoI champions to win such games say 3 out of 4 times but there is little this season to indicate a consistant level of performance to take much more than a 50/50. Domestically things are generally inconsistant, winnng week in week out can cary in to Europe groups more so than fatigue kicking in imo but unless there is a run of wins to a league title its almost toss of a coin of which Rovers turns up. Rovers dont look like they could just cut loose, click, and batter Larne or TNS but.... Them being well in to season gives it an interesting head to head on relative standards too. 4 pts from home games is my random prediction with the needed additional poimts picked up away to Larne. They were nip and tuck on getting hrough the PO round and Rovers have a lot more if they show any form.

Getting way ahead of myself here but if Rovers did manage to beat TNS and Larne that would have them on around 14.5 coefficient for 2025.
That would have been enough to be seeded in round 2 of CL this year. Makes the likely loss of the league this season doubly frustrating. Some incentive to make a miraculous return to form with a few wins in the league......cue not winning tommorow....

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Originally Posted by sbgawa

Getting way ahead of myself here but if Rovers did manage to beat TNS and Larne that would have them on around 14.5 coefficient for 2025.
That would have been enough to be seeded in round 2 of CL this year. Makes the likely loss of the league this season doubly frustrating. Some incentive to make a miraculous return to form with a few wins in the league......cue not winning tommorow....

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Would likely see you seeded all the way through round 1/2/3 of the conference league at least and you never know by the playoff.

Is the most likely scenario of 4 LoI clubs qualifying for the group stage next year; Shelbourne as league winners, Derry cup winners and then Shamrock Rovers and Pat's qualifying in the remaining two European places? (Against all odds of course.)

If shels avoid defeat today I'd expect them to win the league....just .
The top 4 mentioned above seems most likely either way, but I wouldn't expect anyone to get group stage football next season,it simply isn't that straightforward

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Originally Posted by legendz

Is the most likely scenario of 4 LoI clubs qualifying for the group stage next year; Shelbourne as league winners, Derry cup winners and then Shamrock Rovers and Pat's qualifying in the remaining two European places? (Against all odds of course.)

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If one of the 4 made it that's good enough, Rovers would have an outside shot via the conference league path because they'd be seeded in a few rounds, but would still need a lot of luck. Whoever is champions otherwise will be unswwded in CL round 1, and that's the game you really need to win.

I see APOEL have sacked their manager after the draw against Rovers and a defeat to AEK Larnaca at the weekend. Their next manager will be their 17th (Seventeenth!) in the last 7 years, incredible stuff

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Originally Posted by 2 Year Contract

I see APOEL have sacked their manager after the draw against Rovers and a defeat to AEK Larnaca at the weekend. Their next manager will be their 17th (Seventeenth!) in the last 7 years, incredible stuff

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We all look forward to the day that a Cypriot team losing in Europe to an Irish club is not considered a sackable offence.

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Originally Posted by sbgawa

Getting way ahead of myself here but if Rovers did manage to beat TNS and Larne that would have them on around 14.5 coefficient for 2025.
That would have been enough to be seeded in round 2 of CL this year. Makes the likely loss of the league this season doubly frustrating. Some incentive to make a miraculous return to form with a few wins in the league......cue not winning tommorow....

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Interesting question, what was the highest ever for an Irish club, have a feeling (could be wrong) it was Dundalk on 12.5 at one stage.

Hilariously it will still be 2.00 - 3.00 if we qualify for Europe in next 2 years, then its gone and back to zero, I'd think focus on remaining 'In Ireland' never mind Europe is of bigger concern.

Tickets for Larne away finally coming out this week,bad news for non Rovers fans is they're only available to Rovers members and season ticket holders so no LOI/IL "neutrals" allowed in the away end- easily resolved I'd say by getting a ticket in the home end for those determined to see Rovers in the Conference league:)

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Originally Posted by placid casual

Tickets for Larne away finally coming out this week,bad news for non Rovers fans is they're only available to Rovers members and season ticket holders so no LOI/IL "neutrals" allowed in the away end- easily resolved I'd say by getting a ticket in the home end for those determined to see Rovers in the Conference league:)

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You’d have to register as a member with Larne to buy an away end ticket ( only 3 match package available) and that would involve providing personal details e.g your address. So not that easy….. as for the security measures in place for us away fans ; they’re exceptionally oppressive /strict.

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Originally Posted by Calcio Jack

You’d have to register as a member with Larne to buy an away end ticket ( only 3 match package available) and that would involve providing personal details e.g your address. So not that easy….. as for the security measures in place for us away fans ; they’re exceptionally oppressive /strict.

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Complete nonsense, know some Rovers fans living in Belfast with no other allegiances who are very disappointed. cant see us selling 2.5k tickets with such restrictions.

Would there not be tickets on general sale in the "home end" for IL neutrals to watch the game. Larne only have about 1,500 fans I'm told ,and the ground holds about 18,000 ..

I know they may not want to open other parts of the ground for expense reasons but if there was demand for general tickets sales is there a significant security risk, or any more so than any game, is it particualar caution in IL, historical, being IL v LoI, Rovers fans stellar rep etc. Its par for the course for LoI neutrals go to European games and mix in no issues, but it is very LoI maybe that club rivalries are dulled quite a lot for Europe.

Old Windor, in different circumstances you could think you were being 'detained' with police escorting busses to the old ground, barbed wire everywhere with riot police feeling like 1 to 1 ratio. Ive not been to new Windsor but Id say it going in to the ground is massively changed and it would be easier for security in smaller numbers. Regardless it'd be a shame that a 3/4 empty ground is 'sold out' when theres additional interest.

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Originally Posted by Nesta99

I know they may not want to open other parts of the ground for expense reasons but if there was demand for general tickets sales is there a significant security risk, or any more so than any game, is it particualar caution in IL, historical, being IL v LoI, Rovers fans stellar rep etc. Its par for the course for LoI neutrals go to European games and mix in no issues, but it is very LoI maybe that club rivalries are dulled quite a lot for Europe.

Old Windor, in different circumstances you could think you were being 'detained' with police escorting busses to the old ground, barbed wire everywhere with riot police feeling like 1 to 1 ratio. Ive not been to new Windsor but Id say it going in to the ground is massively changed and it would be easier for security in smaller numbers. Regardless it'd be a shame that a 3/4 empty ground is 'sold out' when theres additional interest.

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I remember the Setanta Cup game in Windsor alright when we won 5-2. The security was off the scale and going in under the tunnel with all the bared wire and escorted out. No buses allowed travel only the official club buses etc
One of the best nights I ever had supporting Dundalk by the way

A few years back in the President's Cup final, it wasn't half as bad. We got our own bus from the pub we drink in and all buses had to meet the PSNI just outside Belfast at a retail park and they took us the long way around to Windsor and we were let off close to the away end but was plenty Linfield fans walking about that area

The ironically and oddly named, albeit sponsor Unite the Union Cup, rather then Presidents Cup but it was an era that was hard to keep track all the silverware!

The first time I ever seen police on horseback was at a Setanta cup match in Longford :D

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Originally Posted by Acornvilla

The first time I ever seen police on horseback was at a Setanta cup match in Longford :D

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Maybe all the squad cars were in use elsewhere so had to revert to horses! I honestly think these units are for show more than anything for games involving LoI here. They have been occasionally at Oriel over the years but one or two units at most and the spend most of the time interacting with fascinated kids.

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Originally Posted by Nesta99

Maybe all the squad cars were in use elsewhere so had to revert to horses! I honestly think these units are for show more than anything for games involving LoI here. They have been occasionally at Oriel over the years but one or two units at most and the spend most of the time interacting with fascinated kids.

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Saw a garda on a horse give a youngfella the best slap I've ever seen (not sure if that's the right award category, maybe it was the funniest) after a Bohs Rovers game. Gardaí must long for the days when we didn't all have cameras on our phones. Garda just said "go home" with a slap to the face that sounded like a Foley effect and your man did actually move so guessing it was a case of bark bigger than bite.

Anyway, pity if tickets are being limited. You'd like to see the two champions on this island play in front of the biggest crowd possible, especially in a game of such importance to both.

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Originally Posted by bohsmug

Saw a garda on a horse give a youngfella the best slap I've ever seen (not sure if that's the right award category, maybe it was the funniest) after a Bohs Rovers game. Gardaí must long for the days when we didn't all have cameras on our phones. Garda just said "go home" with a slap to the face that sounded like a Foley effect and your man did actually move so guessing it was a case of bark bigger than bite.

Anyway, pity if tickets are being limited. You'd like to see the two champions on this island play in front of the biggest crowd possible, especially in a game of such importance to both.

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I laughed so maybe the funniest works best, kind of a shame there wasnt a video of it so onomatopoeia could add to comedic value!