Jack Byrne: Difficulty competing in Europe underestimated by Irish people

FEELING THE BYRNE: Jack Byrne feels the difficulty of competing in Europe is underestimated by Irish people. Pic: ©INPHO/Aleksandar Djorovic

Jack Byrne feels the difficulty of competing in Europe is underestimated by Irish people.

The domestic title-holders Shamrock Rovers are slipping out of the Champions League as they chase a two-goal deficit in Prague on Tuesday, their exit cushioned somewhat by a Europa League fallback against either Slovan Bratislava or NK Celje next week.

Overcoming Icelandic opponents in the recent opening round even affords the Hoops a third bite at reaching the group stages of the Conference League, a habitat they enjoyed in 2022.

Yet Derry City’s meek elimination to Gibraltarian outfit Magpies and league leaders Shelbourne getting destroyed 3-0 by FC Zurich in last week’s first leg injects a sobering reality into the standing of the league in the contest of Europe.

The return of Byrne, capped four times by Ireland, is a boost for the Hoops but the 28-year-old has been on the circuit long enough to be honest about the strides Irish teams must make for regular group phase participation to be a reality.

That chasm doesn’t just relate to standards of play but that thorny topic of infrastructural deficits.

“I think people underestimate the quality of other teams and different nations,” said the midfielder, who missed last week’s 2-0 defeat due to suspension.

“I can only speak from my own opinion, but when I played in the Netherlands' top division (for Cambuur), it wasn't only the top three teams that were qualifying for Europe that were good; the rest of the teams were.

“So when you play teams from Gibraltar, Iceland, Norway, these are the top teams in their country.

“They're going to have international players and will be coached well and they're going to be difficult, with the heat and all that sort of stuff.

“People from Ireland are obviously watching Irish football all the time but they might not be watching the Scandinavian countries or whoever it may be and don't realise how difficult the game could be.” 

Sparta have designs on returning to the Champions League group stage after making it all the way to the last-16 of last year’s Europa where they lost to Liverpool.

Competitive levels vary across Europe but Byrne insists increasing all facets of the game lessens the burden on just one team to fly the flag for Ireland in Europe.

“We want more competition in Ireland, better players and facilities, all of that stuff to push the league but it’s not there at the moment,” he notes.

“We’ve good players and it’s getting better but we obviously need to push because it’s not only for Shamrock Rovers to qualify, it’s for whoever wins the league or finishes second. Why can’t we have two or three teams in it? These are the things we need to do.”

Byrne’s boss Stephen Bradley isn’t giving up on extending their Champions League journey, with a meeting against either Steaua Bucharest or Maccabi Tel Aviv awaiting in the third round.

Losing striker Johnny Kenny to injury this week is a blow, as is the game coming too early for another casualty, Aaron McEneff, to feature. Former Ireland attacker Graham Burke does return, without being fit enough to last the 90 minutes.

“We saw in Tallaght last week with our missed chances that it only takes a second to score,” says Bradley, whose attempts to delay Friday’s visit to Waterford by 24 hours were rejected.

“It’s really important we don’t get caught up in the aspect of needing to score early. We’ll create something at some point and our mindset is to win the game.

“If you go and completely open the game up against opponents of this level, you get punished too easily. We’ve to be really careful in how you go and win the game.”