Stephen Kenny is adamant that neither he nor his players will be daunted by the scale of their task but Dundalk will do well to expand their Champions League prize pot after having been paired with BATE Borisov in the second qualifying round of the competition.
The Dubliner was in charge of Bohemians when they beat the Belarusians just over a decade ago and says that should serve to remind his current squad of what can be done, but BATE have come a long way since losing 3-0 at Dalymount Park and Kenny readily acknowledges that his current club have quite a task on their hands.
“I have enough experience to know that it will be a difficult test but we won’t be fearful,” he says. “They have players from the Belarusian team and one or two other international players but we’re on a brilliant run of form and while people can be sceptical all they want, I consider myself to be a good judge of these things and I believe I have players of international calibre.
“It’s an interesting draw for us,” he continues. “They’ve been very successful, five times in the group stages (of one or other European competition) over the last seven years; it’s a credit to them. They’ve a great pedigree and a great example of what can be achieved. But that should inspire us.”
BATE have reached the group stages of the Champions League four times in total and along the way they have recorded a number of really notable individual results including a win over Bayern Munich and draws with Zenit St Petersburg, Juventus and Milan. Last season they went out with three points from their six group games having beaten Athletic Bilbao 2-1 at home but lost their other fixtures by a combined score of 24-0.
Still, the fact that they repeatedly qualified underlines their quality and their first-team squad contains some 16 players with full international caps to their name. Dundalk’s task is not made any easier by the likelihood that they will, like Bohemians who lost 1-0 away, have to base themselves after the long journey from Ireland in Minsk and travel on the day to Borisov, which is 75 kilometres away.
“We might have to do the same this time,” acknowledges Kenny, whose side will be playing to increase the club’s guaranteed European prize money from €550,000 to €1.18 million. “We’ll have to look at all that.”
St Patrick's Athletic boss Liam Buckley, meanwhile, is hoping Cork City will agree to postpone the scheduled league game that falls between their respective Europa League fixtures after his side was handed a potentially tricky encounter with Skonto Riga of Latvia.
“It’s a huge game but I’d sooner have it moved back further into the season,” he says. “There’ll be plenty of weeks when we could play it. Ultimately, it’s Cork’s call because it’s their home game but I’ll talk to John (Caulfield) over the next few days and see what his take on it is.”
Caulfield seemed less concerned about his side’s schedule, perhaps understandably given that the league game is at Turner’s Cross, but he is wary of City’s Icelandic Europa League opponents, KR.
“It’s a tricky draw,” he says. “They’re only fifth in the table (ahead of their league game on Monday night) but historically, they’ve been the number one club in Iceland. It should be very tight but it’s still one that gives us a chance of progressing.”
The two other Irish sides involved, Shamrock Rovers and UCD, drew sides from Luxembourg, Progres Niederkorn and F91 Dudelange, that share the same ground. While the order and dates for the rest of the clubs' games have been confirmed as being in accordance with the actual draw (Dundalk will announce arrangements today, but say the order of their games won't be reversed), Rovers' games were each on course to be brought forward by 48 hours last night with Pat Fenlon's side set to play away next Tuesday with the return leg seven days later in Tallaght.
Draw (selected): Champions League, First qualifying round: Crusaders (NI) v Levadia Tallinn (Est), B36 Tórshavn (Fro) v The New Saints (Wal). Ties played on June 30th/July 1st and July 7th/8th. Second qualifying round: BATE Borisov (Blr) v Dundalk, Celtic (Sco) v Stjarnan (Isl), KF Skënderbeu (Alb) v Crusaders/Levadia Tallinn, B36 Tórshavn/The New Saints v Videoton (Hun). Ties played on 14th/15th and 21st/22nd July.
Europa League, First qualifying round: Newtown (Wal) v Valletta (Mlt), Glenavon (NI) v Shakhtyor Soligorsk (Blr), NSÍ Runavík (Fro) v Linfield (NI), Progrès Niederkorn (Lux) v Shamrock Rovers, Cork City v KR Reykjavík (Isl), UCD v F91 Dudelange (Lux), Differdange 03 (Lux) v Bala Town (Wal), KF Shkëndija (Mkd) v Aberdeen (Sco), Glentoran (NI) v MŠK Zilina (Svk), Alashkert (Arm) v St Johnstone (Sco), Skonto Riga (Lva) v St Patrick's Athletic, Lusitans (And) v West Ham (Eng), AUK Broughton (Wal) v Lokomotiva Zagreb (Cro). Ties scheduled at time of draw to be played on July 2nd and 9th but are subject to confirmation.
Second round: Progrès Niederkorn/Shamrock Rovers v Sheriff (Mda)/Odds BK (Nor), Cork City/KR v Víkingur (Fro)/Rosenborg BK (Nor), Europa FC (Gib)/ Slovan Bratislava (Svk) v UCD/F91 Dudelange, Skonto Riga/St Patrick's Athletic v Debreceni VSC (Hun)/FK Sutjeska (Mne).
