Stephen Kenny expects to have all of his players bar suspended skipper Stephen O'Donnell available for the Europa League group game against Maccabi Tel Aviv in Tallaght on Thursday night with Seán Gannon and John Mountney both on course to feature despite struggling with groin problems.

With the club hopeful that the game will sell out, Kenny is confident that his side can again make the step up required against high-calibre opposition in Europe.

“We’ve worked hard to get here,” he says. “Two epic games against Legia and a great result in Alkmaar so we’ve earned the right to be here and we go into tomorrow night knowing that a win would put us first or second place in the group.

“It’s an exciting game for us. Maccabi have been excellent but we’ve played good teams in the competition so far and we’ve done well. It should be a good game and we know that it’s league football; it’s all about getting points on the board and so a narrow defeat is completely useless.

“We’ve highlighted quite a lot to the players,” he continues. “We’ve done our homework. We’ve learned a lot over the last few years playing the European games. They all present a tactical challenge and we haven’t played the same way in any two. We’ve had a great result and goal with 10 men in Holland, that’s given us a lot of confidence and the players can take that into tomorrow’s game.

“Obviously they’re very strong too, though. Tal Ben Chaim’s goal for Israel against Italy (in World Cup qualifying earlier this month) and the two goals that he got at the weekend (in a 5-0 defeat of Hapoel Tel Aviv), were all of the highest quality but they have a lot of attacking threats. It’s not about any one player but we have faced good teams in Europe before and the aim is to win.”

Maccabi have right back Eli Dasa suspended after he was sent off in the build-up to the first of Zenit's four late goals in Israel. The hosts had led 3-0 with 15 minutes to go but ultimately lost to the Russians who Dundalk will face for the first time next month.