Europa League, first qualifying round, second leg
KR Reykjavík v Cork City
KR-Völlur, Reykjavík
8.15pm
Cork City must score and secure a positive result against KR Reykjavik if they are to progress to the second qualifying round of the Uefa Europa League.
The Leesiders, who are looking to end a six-game streak without a win in Europe, were held to a 1-1 draw by Bjarni Gudjónsson’s side in the first leg at Turner’s Cross last Thursday after Óskar Hauksson’s header cancelled out Alan Bennett’s opener.
Improved performance
However, despite the result,
John Caulfield
remains confident that his team can put in an improved performance in order to ensure their progression to the next stage of the competition.
“We know it’s a difficult game, as I said from the very start I thought it would be 50/50,” Caulfield said. “Obviously we know we have to score over there. I feel we can give a better performance than we did at home and hopefully we can get the right result.”
Highly-rated defender John Kavanagh is out of contention after suffering a setback in his recovery from a hamstring injury and centre back Darren Dennehy is unavailable due to a groin tear, so Dan Murray is expected to reclaim his place in defence.
Colin Healy and Alan Bennett have travelled to Iceland, but doubts hang over the duo. Notably, City's joint-top scorer this season Billy Dennehy was not included in the official panel, with Caulfield revealing that he had allowed the former Shamrock Rovers man to seek out other avenues away from the club.
KR, meanwhile, come into the second-leg tie having triumphed over their rivals FH in the quarter-final to continue their defence of the Icelandic Cup. Gudjónsson made three changes for the game with Almarr Ormarsson and Skuli Fridgeirsson dropping to the bench, while Gonzalo Balbi missed out completely after limping out of the City game.
