Shamrock Rovers open Euro group campaign with deserved draw 

The Hoops were held by Djurgårdens at Tallaght.

POINT MADE: Rovers’ head coach Stephen Bradley after the game.

Shamrock Rovers 0 Djurgårdens IF 0 

Shamrock Rovers couldn’t extend their perfect home European record for the season to five games in this Europa Conference League opener but the point gained does at least give them a foothold in Group F.

It’s eleven years since the club had the honour of becoming the first Irish side to make it to the group stages of a Uefa men’s competition and that Europa League campaign – against a higher class of opposition - ended with six defeats.

This, their first group campaign since, was a rung lower on the ladder, and a step into something of the unknown because of it.

Djurgårdens manager Thomas Lagerlöf was asked for his favourites 24 hours before kick-off and had to pause before offering Molde in reply. It was offered with little conviction and the Norwegian side duly opened their own account with a 0-0 stalemate at home to Gent.

The Swedish visitors started and finished much the stronger here with the Hoops doing most of their best work through the middle chapters, and a 26th game unbeaten at Tallaght was probably a fair reflection of the efforts of both on the night.

Stephen Bradley opted to make three changes to the side that lost so tamely to Bohemians in Dalymount Park last Friday night so there was no Dan Cleary at the back, no Jack Byrne in midfield and no Rory Gaffney up front.

In came Sean Gannon (making his 50th European appearance), Chris McCann and the 17-year old Justin Ferizaj, while captain Ronan Finn was making an Irish record 55th European contribution in midfield.

Cleary only had to wait for 13 minutes and an injury to Sean Hoare before coming on but he plugged into a Rovers outfit that was jittery at the back and toothless going forward. Only in midfield did they look anyway settled in the early stages.

Roared on by their few hundred fans in the East Stand, Djurgårdens found an early rhythm with their experienced captain Magnus Eriksson pulling the strings in midfield but their efforts in the final third all too often came up short.

Hampus Findell, Victor Edvardson, Besard Sabovic and Marcus Danielson all sent efforts directly down the throat of goalkeeper Alan Mannus in the opening 45 with the first pair of those chances emanating directly from sloppy Rovers play at the back.

Rovers’ ‘best’ chance of the half was a Dylan Watts snapshot that cleared the bar with a yard to spare but better came on the restart with Gary O’Neill having a shot turned away by Aleksandr Vasyutin and Andy Lyons planting a header straight at the keeper’s feet.

As with Djurgårdens in the first period, Rovers couldn’t quite maintain that level of intensity and pressure but they edged most of what was a jumbled second-half before hunkering down and surviving a late surge that involved a pair of impassioned penalty appeals.

Next up for Rovers in European terms is a trip to Belgium next week.

Shamrock Rovers: A Mannus; S Gannon, S Hoare, L Grace; R Finn, C McCann, G O’Neill, D Watts, A Lyons; A Greene, J Ferizaj. Subs: D Cleary for Hoare (13); J Byrne for Ferizaj, R Gaffney for Green and S Kavanagh for McCann (all 61); N Farrugia for Finn (69).

Djurgårdens IF: A Vasyutin; P Johansson, M Danielson, H Ekdal, P Bengtsson; H Finndell, B Sabovic, M Eriksson; J Asoro, V Edvardsen, G Wikheim. Subs: R Schuller for Eriksson, E Andersson for Bengtsson, H Radetinac for Asoro, and E Banda for Finndell (all 61); A Doumbouya for Wikheim (92).

Referee: IO Kristjansson (Iceland).