Shamrock Rovers kick off Champions League qualifying round with visit to Reykjavik

Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley celebrates

Just 37 days after Real Madrid lifted the Champions League trophy at Wembley, Shamrock Rovers kick off the new edition by facing Vikingur in Reykjavik.

Their failure to break Icelanders Bredablik at this stage last year was costly for the Hoops, squandering a route to the group stages of the subsidiary Conference League they’d secured in 2022.

This task seems similarly tight, both teams champions of their league and involved in a calendar season that should see them peak in the summer.

Rovers have failed to hit those heights this year – their record-breaking attempt at a fifth straight title in peril as a result of Damien Duff steering Shelbourne’s to a 13-point lead at the summit – but the return of key players Darragh Burns and Neil Farrugia offers a timely boost.

With the away goals rule abandoned since Covid-19, defender Dan Cleary is expecting an open affair ahead of the Tallaght return seven days later.

All that matters is they emerge from this opener as victors, for it not only smashes the €1m prize money barrier but secures at least two additional ties within Uefa’s competition structure.

“Everyone in Irish football and every smaller nation in Europe, understands that Europe is an area you can earn really good money for the club,” said Hoops boss Stephen Bradley on the eve of the first leg.

“There's no getting away from how important that is but, as the manager, and as a team, that's not your focus or thought process.

“It's about the opposition, what we are facing, how we are going to stop them and hurt them - as simple as it is.

“If you start thinking of everything outside, you will lose focus on what matters.” Unlike Rovers, who’ve done so twice, Vikingur have never reached group stages of Europe. They are managed Arnar Gunnlaugsson, a former player of Martin O’Neill’s during a glorious period of Leicester City’s history, and Bradley knows where they’ll unleash their attacks on the artificial surface.

“They’ve scored 26 goals from wide areas, so that shows us how dangerous they are from there,” he noted about the team enjoying a 12-game unbeaten run.

“They’re very good in the final third; always exploiting wide areas and getting bodies in the box, where we know they are strong.

“That said, I do believe if we’re at our levels, we have enough in the group to really cause them problems going the other way.”