Bradley and Towell raring to go for Rovers’ European adventure in Slovakia
By Daire Walsh
Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley is anticipating a mammoth challenge in Slovakia this evening as the SSE Airtricity Premier Division holders take on Slovan Bratislava in the opening leg of the UEFA Champions League first qualifying round (kick-off 5.30pm Irish time).
Winners of the Fortuna Liga for the past three seasons, the Sky Blues possess a strong European pedigree, having secured the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup back in 1969.
They have knocked out the likes of St Patrick’s Athletic, UCD and Dundalk in modern times, and Bradley has been working overtime to ensure the Hoops don’t suffer a similar fate.
“They are a very good team. They have obviously dominated Slovakian football for the last few years. I’ve watched quite a few of their games. Between the staff we’ve probably watched 10 or 11 games between their tournament last week and the back-end of last season,” Bradley explained.
“They are a very good side, really dangerous going forward and it’s a difficult game, but we are looking forward to it. It’s a good challenge. Their system is basic when you look at it, but it very rarely stays like that. They interchange, they rotate. They are very aggressive with their positions.
“They are very clever footballers off the ball in terms of running and seeing spaces. It’s a nice challenge. It’s good, it’s fresh, it’s something different. Like Europe always is. It’s obviously a step up, but it’s one we are looking forward to.”
Given the away goals rule has now been scrapped for European competitions, Rovers will be aiming for a positive result to bring into next Tuesday’s return leg at the Tallaght Stadium. It may be a daunting proposition on paper, but Bradley and his troops are ready to embrace the challenges that lie ahead.
“It’s great, first of all, that we are playing our first game in the Champions League in quite some time. It’s brilliant that the club is back here, but it’s important that we build on this. This team has done really well in Europe in terms of performances and results. We’ll look to build on that.
“We know it’s a really high level of opposition, but it’s always going to be that in the Champions League unless you get extremely lucky. It’s a difficult game, but this is where we want to be. These are the games we want to be in and it’s a nice challenge. It’s one we are looking forward to.”
Amongst the travelling Rovers party for tonight’s game will be recent recruit Richie Towell, who made his league debut against former club Dundalk in Tallaght last Friday. He has previous experience at this level for the Lilywhites – a 2-1 aggregate defeat to BATE Borisov in the 2015-16 Champions League qualifiers – and is hopeful of a good run in Europe with his new employers.
“We did some video on them and they look a really top side. They press really aggressively and they keep the ball really well so we know we can’t be carrying anyone in the game. We are going to have to have 11 lads at it,” the Inchicore native said.
“Even our bench, which was really strong against Dundalk, hopefully the lads that don’t start can impact the game. Because we are going to need everybody, right down from the manager and through the coaching staff. We will need every single person if we are to progress in Europe. It is going to need to be a real team effort.”