Shels will be pragmatic despite need to attack Qarabag lead
Manager Joey O’Brien and Luke Byrne. Pic: Aleksandar Djorovic
Shelbourne will be praying for a miracle from the Gods in a Baku stadium named after the man who awarded the most famous ghost goal in history.
Tofiq Bahramov was the linesman who infamously and erroneously raised his flag for Geoff Hurst’s shot crossing the line in the 1966 World Cup final.
Such was England’s hat-trick hero’s gratitude to the deceased Azerbaijani that he unveiled a statue honouring the generous official in Baku on the eve of England’s visit in 2004.
Shels require a glut of gifts to overturn their three-goal deficit from the first-leg against Qarabag.
It was heading for a narrow 1-0 margin until the Azeris defied their out-of-season rustiness to pounce for two more late on.
Joey O’Brien’s Reds have the consolation of two more ties within the Uefa structure as a fallback, starting with the Europa League clash against either Ludogorets (Bulgaria) or Rijeka (Croatia), starting next week on foreign soil again.
What the ex-Irish international is eager to avoid is facing whichever European challenge looms with another heavy defeat. Group stage participation later in the season, which Qarabag have perfected over the past 11 years, is the ultimate objective for the reigning Irish champions.
“We can’t have a repeat of what happened last season in Switzerland,” said O’Brien, referencing a goal conceded within the first minute away to FC Zurich.
“Although we’re behind in the tie, we can’t go off on a mad one. We like to play on the front foot, but the hot conditions here won’t allow that. You get picked off at this level as we saw by making a critical mistake right at the start last year.
“We saw how damaging that can be, turning the leg into a long, long night.”
Nobody within the Shels camp is countenancing the language around a free hit but the nature of the Champions path means there are realistic tasks to forethink.
Even if the Reds exit the Europa, their first-round win over Linfield has sealed a shot at the Conference League group phase through a playoff.
“Coming to a big stadium like this and having the opportunity of playing a top team in their back garden, our players are chomping at the bit,” O’Brien said about the experience of top-tier competition for his players.
“We’ll have a gameplan to try to win the game, even if we’ll have to be more pragmatic.”
Last year’s campaign for Shels, their first for 18 years, had O’Brien in the assistant’s role to Damien Duff. Now O’Brien is the gaffer, directly into the upper echelons of Uefa’s hierarchy to test himself against the best. Last week’s ruthlessness by his opponents supplied an early glimpse.
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