Sean Gannon: Dundalk have no fear

The standard line from footballers is that you treat every game the same but, with the best wishes of Martin O’Neill ringing in their ears, the news that President Michael D. Higgins will be in attendance and, as of yesterday, around 23,000 tickets already sold, there’s no escaping the reality that the footballers of Dundalk will be contesting the highest stakes match of their lives when they take to the Aviva Stadium pitch to play Legia Warsaw in their Champions League play-off first leg tomorrow evening.

The tie is Dundalk’s reward for already exceeding expectations by sensationally dumping BATE Borisov out in the last round, the Lilywhites 3-0 win in Tallaght — having lost the away leg 1-0 — being widely acclaimed as the best performance ever in Europe by a League of Ireland side.

“We’re always confident in our ability and in the group that we have,” says full-back Sean Gannon. “But to beat BATE was an unbelievable night for Irish football and I think the whole country got behind us. We do sometimes stop and think about where we are but I think we’re here on merit, to be honest. I think we deserved to go through against BATE for the second leg performance.