'There is nothing to be afraid of': Dundalk excited by prospect of facing Arsenal

Dundalk manager Filippo Giovagnoli celebrates at the final whistle. Picture: INPHO/Tommy Dickson

Filippo Giovagnoli insists fear will not be a factor when Dundalk face Arsenal in the Europa League.

The Italian had declared a wish to be paired with Jose Mourniho and Tottenham Hotspur prior to yesterday's draw for the group stages but he was more than happy to find Dundalk pitted against another North London giant as well as Molde of Norway and Rapid Vienna instead.

His admiration for Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta was clear. Giovagnoli loves the way in which the Spaniard's team stick to his footballing principles and play the ball out of defence under pressure.

There is realism in all this. He is the first to admit that Arsenal have not just better players but better coaches as well but points to his own unlikely journey from the director of a New York football academy to Europa League gaffer as proof that anything is possible in life.

Playing at the Emirates will be a dream, even if the possibility exists that his Airtricity League side could find itself on the wrong end of a skewed scoreline if the Gunners fire and his own side produces a performance below their very best.

"It's pure excitement, pure excitement,” he said a few hours after yesterday's draw in Nyon. “There is nothing to be afraid of.

You have to be afraid if you go to war and you have to kill somebody or be killed. For a football game, no for sure.

Hundreds of text messages and emails awaited him after the defeat of KÍ on Thursday night that secured their place in the group phase and again yesterday morning. None were more important than those from the club's American owners for whose plans this was key.

Plenty more emanated from his friends back in New York and at home in the small town of Apecchio where the beer and truffles festival planned for this weekend will jostle for attention with the Dundalk-Finn Harps game which is being shown on a big screen.

The man himself, while delighted with the achievement so far, is not in party mode. That Harps game is crucial to the club's ambitions in qualifying for Europe and the cash that brings again next season and there are improvements to be made before it.

Dundalk were poor at times against the Faroe Islands side on Thursday. The manager said as much and added that he had made mistakes himself on the night. Better will be required, both domestically and on the continent, in the weeks to come.

The Lilywhites bolstered their squad when they made the group stages for the first time back in 2016. So did Shamrock Rovers when they broke that glass ceiling for Irish clubs five years earlier but Giovagnoli was adamant that there will be no new signings. Those who got them there deserve the chance to test themselves at that level, he argued.

Other considerations need to be addressed too. Dundalk played their three group games, against Maccabi Tel Aviva, Zenit Saint Petersburg and AZ Alkmaar at Tallaght Stadium last time. 

The hope is that the situation for the group games will be sufficiently stable to allow some spectators take this journey in first-hand and Giovagnoli himself seemed to be smitten with the Aviva Stadium's surface and the stadium itself. So much so that the club will play their group games at the national stadium.

Dundalk banked four points on their first such venture and lost the other four games by the bare minimum. Matching that would be an achievement in itself but the boss is aiming higher. “Let's do five,” he joked. “Let's try to do five points. Let's beat the record.”