Good Lord - thischarmingman is a blast from the foot.ie past!
Welcome back!
They drew Viktoria Plzen (Czechia) or Gzira United (Malta). Best draw they could get really.
If Gzira manage to fluke past Plzen then it’s definitely the best draw, but I think that’s unlikely.Originally Posted by holidaysong
Plzen are always strong - reached CL group stages last year.
I thought the most potentially winnable and realistic opposition would have been Aris (Greece) or Pogon (Poland). Neither of them have massive European pedigree in the past few years and both finished a bit off the pace domestically last season. That said Plzen only finished 3rd in Czech last season, 10 pts off the big Prague clubs.
Tough, but could have been worse, I suppose.
TBH, not confident of getting past FC Tobol. Beating Basel was some job, even if Basel were very poor. They beat Honka 2-1 in the first round, and we know we can beat a Finish team too.
Last year, they beat Lincoln Red Imps, then lost to Zrinjski of Mostar.
In 2021, they beat Hadjuk Split, then lost heavily to Zilina.
If we were playing in the Brandywell, it could be a different story. I reckon Tobol are worth their 4/6 odds of going through.
Can’t disagree with any of this. If the home leg was in Bradywell it would be close to a 50/50 tie.
It’s not much of a silver lining, but I’m sure plenty of LOI neutrals around Dublin will head along and support Derry - I will anyway! I think Derry are a v well liked club in that respect.
By all acounts, Glentoran were clearly the better team against Gzira, home and away. And although they have no-one to blame only themselves eg missed a penalty during regular play in both legs, the Glens "should" have gone through.
Would agree with Philo that if DCFC could get through to play Gzira then they should have a v.good chance of progressing. But while one of those could happen, it's hard to predict both.
Derry looking to play their home game at Windsor Park,makes sense…..
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
Can they do that?
Is there a link to this?
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/66422064
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
Genuinely surprised that the club are asking for this, but great stuff!
90 minutes versus 4+ hours on a work night. If UEFA / FAI agree then sensible option
Very inconsiderate on us poor dubs
Might this be the start of a return to the Irish League ?
We should all just go back to the IL, yourselves included.
Just wondering if the club have maybe missed the boat on Windsor. You'd imagine Tobol have already applied for their Irish visas, would they be willing to get UK ones now?
Windsor definitely the logical choice. I suppose we couldn’t have even asked for it earlier as Linfield may have still been in competition but hopefully not too late. If get the go ahead and can keep the tie alive you’d think we could get a bumper crowd in Belfast. A handy ~1hr 15min drive now and a significant Derry contingent in Belfast anyway.
Not a bit of cake and eat it going on ? If Tallaght was nominated it should be set in stone.
They should have had this sorted before the competition started, yes, but if we can change, why not?
Read through the rules on it, basically seems like it's up to UEFA to approve.
With Derry’s unique position I could definitely see UEFA agreeing. Would there be agreement from the IFA ? As you said earlier, the opponents could get awkward about it too. Apart from anything else I’m sure they’d prefer to have Derry discommoded by having to travel as far as possible, and play in front of less of their own support.
Out for a spell, got neglected, lay on the bench unselected.
Once the oposition realise the price of hotels in Dublin during the Summer seaosn, they'll be straight onto the phone to agree
The IFA are fine with it, few extra quid and gives them a positive media story too.
Team flying from Derry at 9 this morning, arriving into Kostanay at 1 in the morning Kazakh time. Proper trek, even with a charter.
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