LOI In Europe 2021

The 'little guy' started with just 2 of the eleven who started in their home defeat (on pens) to Dundalk a year ago. None of the other 9 were on the bench at the Bernabeu. Meanwhile, at Oriel Park v Bohs, De Town started with 6 of the eleven who had started in Moldova. (Rogers retired, Gartland injured, Gannon, Hoare and Shields departed).

The impressive thing about Sheriff T's performances is the building in a year - almost from scratch - of a team who can compete so well in the CL group stage.

I think Sheriff rebuild like that quite regularly. Possibly this year they got a bit lucky with a few better players than usual.

Still a hell of an achievement though, and the UEFA bigwigs are probably fuming, which is good, even if Sheriff do seem a very unlikeable club under the bonnet.

The entire Moldovan league is in line for a serious windfall out of it too from the Solidarity Payments (which I think increase as points are gained in the CL groups?)

Not sure if this has been posted before but a good thread on Sheriff here ….

https://mobile.twitter.com/SlavaMala...39451069509639

What are the chances that Bill will use Sherriff as a justification of his ad hoc transfer policy.

Pats 0-1 Red Star Belgrade , early goal from red star but Pats getting into the match now.

2-0 to Red Star at halftime. Goal right at the end of the 1st half for Red Star was cruel enough. Bad refereeing isn't the preserve of our league judging by this ref's performance.

A typical Irish European performance we gave away sloppy goals and missed some excellent chances. I’m delighted for the lads the they have a goal to travel with. The lad that scored for them has a few first team appearances under his belt and looks decent. The ref lost control of the game at times and could have got someone broke up.

Well fair play, pulled one back too.
Many there D24?
Do away goals count in this?

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Originally Posted by pateen

Well fair play, pulled one back too.
Many there D24?
Do away goals count in this?

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A good guesstimate would be 800. I’m not sure on away goals but since they are obsolete in uefa senior competitions I’d say their youth ones follow suit. Hopefully we can turn the tie around in the second leg.

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2021...assy-red-star/

Interesting that that consolation means still only Cork - at home to Roma - have lost a game by more than one goal in this. That's in 11 games between Cork (the only club to win a tie), UCD (the only other club to win a match), Bohs (the only club to qualify twice) and Pat's

It's a decent record when you consider the sides we've been drawn against. UCD keeping Haaland scoreless probably the most impressive feat

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Interesting that that consolation means still only Cork - at home to Roma - have lost a game by more than one goal in this. That's in 11 games between Cork (the only club to win a tie), UCD (the only other club to win a match), Bohs (the only club to qualify twice) and Pat's

It's a decent record when you consider the sides we've been drawn against. UCD keeping Haaland scoreless probably the most impressive feat

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Wow! Impressive that, never knew UCD had played in it at all. I thought Cork were the first LOI side to play in it beating HJK Helsinki then losing to Roma, after that I was only aware of Bohs losing to PAOK and Waterford were due to play Hammarby last year before the competition was cancelled due to covid. UCD presumably faced Molde then, who did Bohs play in their other tie?

On last night's game, really good performance from the young pats team who were getting kicked up and down the pitch by the massively tall and very physical Red Star team (the Icelandic ref would be right at home in the LOI it seems). Their alleged 17 year old number 11 up front has got to have 2 kids and a mortgage by the way! A goal in it going into the second leg is a decent result considering pats were without 3 of their best players in Darragh Burns and James Abankwah who were left out of the squad and Ben McCormack who only played the second half (and scored) all due to being needed for the first team game in Drogheda tomorrow night. A great problem to have for the 19s though that they’re producing so many important players for the first team. I thought Kian Corbally in centre midfield and Tommy Lonergan were excellent up front as well as the Curtis brothers Sam and Ben at centre back.

Yeah, Cork were the first side (2016). We played in 2017. Bohs also played Midtylland of Denmark; lost 2-1 in both games but I think it was two late goals in Dalymount that won it for the Danes in the end.

Haaland only actually played 30 minutes against us in the second leg in Molde, and then scored in the penalty shoot-out (finished 3-3 on aggregate), but he played nonetheless. LoI sides do compete very well in it though, and yet we clearly fall away from the respective clubs at senior level.

Any idea what kind of prize money is on offer for this? I can understand why SOD made the decision, but it's a pity those first team players had to miss out

None afaik - just away expenses.

I’d imagine had there been any reasonable prize money up for grabs in the Youth League he may have let them play but with the senior team in a good position to get a European place from the last 8 games of the season it has to take precedence given the money that goes with it

I fully appreciate that. The whole point of youth football is to prepare for senior football, so if they're good enough already, there's no point dropping back down. For the lads that haven't made the step up to the first team yet, the experience of a two-leg tie, going away to what will probably be a more hostile environment than they've played in before will be invaluable.

Pats beaten 2-0 in Belgrade in the second leg. It was always going to be a tough ask up against a side that have got results against Bayern/Liverpool and similar standard sides in the Uefa Youth League in recent years. Great experience for the lads though and 2-1 and 2-0 losses are far from a disgrace considering we’re apparently the lowest ranked league in the competition this year. Looking on LiveScore yesterday there was some absolute tonkings in the competition last night, like Midjtylland 10-1 Rosenberg (14-3 agg) and AZ Alkmaar 7-0 Qabala (11-0 agg).

Was always going to be a tough task for Pats. As you say, seems to have been a respectable enough showing from the lads. We also have three players in the first team squad who would otherwise have been in that squad ( I know Ben McCormack is injured anyway) so that’s something else to bear in mind. No doubt James Abankwah and Darragh Burns would have lifted the level of the team that extra bit.

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Originally Posted by Nesta99

Youve left hat very broad and open to personal interpretation so I told ye so ;) If they dont pick up points ye can buy me 2!

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Looks like it's just the one pint I owe you Nesta. Flora are doing fine in their ECL group and have just beaten Partizan.