Shamrock Rovers join Shelbourne in Conference group stages with stalemate in Tallaght

The rewards on offer were many and lucrative with a minimum of €3.7m on offer to each Dublin club or making this next step.

NEXT ROUND: Shamrock Rovers' Danny Mandroiu and Sidney Lima of Santa Clara. Pic: ©INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

Europa Conference League Second leg: Shamrock Rovers 0 Santa Clara 0 (Rovers win on agg 2-1)

Shamrock Rovers have done their part in recording what may be the most famous, and certainly most profitable, night in Irish club football history by following Shelbourne into Uefa’s Conference League’s group stages.

Leading 2-1 after the first leg in the Azores, the Airtricity League leaders had little to concern them in the first-half, failed to make the most of a dominant half-hour after the break, and then soaked up the inevitable late onslaught from the Portuguese.

The rewards on offer, in Belfast where Shels sealed their progression with a comprehensive win over Linfield, and in Tallaght, were many and lucrative with a minimum of €3.7m on offer to each Dublin club or making this next step.

Rovers are no strangers to big European nights now. This was a bid for a third group stage appearance since 2022, but events in the southern capital were balanced on a finer edge than in Windsor Park and everyone knew it.

Other historic firsts lay within Rovers’ grasp here.

No League of Ireland team had ever qualified for the league phase of a European competition before without carrying the status as reigning league champions. And no team had ever done it by progressing through three rounds.

Big? This was enormous.

Rovers had already accounted for St Joseph’s of Gibraltar and Kosovan side Ballkani, and they had home advantage and that one-goal lead in this second-leg after Danny Grant and Danny Mandroiu goals turned around a deficit in the Estadio de Sao Miguel.

Santa Clara made two changes for the second engagement but Hoops manager Stephen Bradley left well enough alone, the decision to again keep Graham Burke in reserve suggesting a certain caution was at play against a counter-attacking opponent.

Jack Byrne, whose last match for Rovers was five weeks ago now, was absent again.

There’s any number of ways to chart the League of Ireland’s progression in European football. The sight of Rovers zipping through different, complex passing drills while Santa Clara practised corners and keepy-uppies at the other end is now among them.

One visiting sub even had his hands in his pockets.

A more obvious example would be the way that Rovers played in the first-half. Bradley’s side were composed, disciplined and patient in a game that carried an undeniable air of tension and the understanding with it that one slip or moment of magic could change everything.

Santa Clara enjoyed a good chunk of possession in the first 45 minutes but their output added up to little more than four shots blocked by a home defender and a brief glimpse of goal when Vinicius Lopes got in behind but was adjudged to be offside.

Ed McGinty didn’t get his gloves dirty before the half-time oranges.

There were danger signs alright. Lee Grace had to channel Bobby Moore’s 1970 tackle on Pele to stop one counter from a side renowned for striking on the break, but the first real goal threat was engineered by John Honohan well after the half-hour.

Momentum seemed lost when Honohan was stopped on the corner edge of the penalty area until a quick shuffle of feet opened enough room to crack one off the bar via the goalkeeper’s fingers on the near side.

That aside, the most notable moment was when the South Stand started chanting Josh Bradley’s name in the 11th minute, one week after the manager’s son was declared cancer-free. The night was shaping up just fine.

And the opening to the second-half didn’t dampen any spirits either.

Mandriou had an early shot attempt, Dan Cleary got the ball stuck beneath his feet when seven yards out at a corner, and Pico Lopes had two attempts at goal, one with his boot that was made irrelevant by a free out, and another with his head.

This was all before the hour mark.

Santa Clara turned to the bench, among them Gabriel Silva who was recently named the fastest man in football, but Rovers continued to boss things for a bit longer and this before Burke was ushered on to ask some more searching questions.

Some things stayed the same. Lopes had another chance to open the scoring from yet another Dylan Watts delivery but the defender couldn’t make the most of a free header. Then the visitors went hunting themselves.

McGinty seemed to defy the laws of physics in palming Vinicius Lopes’ thumping half-volley onto the roof of his net. Silva certainly couldn’t believe it, the sub turning away and sinking to his knees in shock and frustration.

Silva, though, wasn’t about to stop trying. He blazed one shot over the bar, skimmed a diving header wide of McGinty’s near post and then tasked the Rovers keeper with a tricky low save to his left from a free-kick with four minutes of normal time left.

There was no getting through. This was Rovers’ night. Irish football’s night.

Shamrock Rovers: E McGinty; L Grace, R Lopes, D Cleary; D Grant, J Honohan; D Nugent, M Healy, D Watts; D Mandroiu; R Gaffney.

Subs: G Burke for Nugent (61); M Noonan for Gaffney (72); A McEneff for Watts (82).

Santa Clara: G Batista; S Lima, Rocha, M Nunes; D Cabral, P Victor; Adriano, Serginho; V Lopes, W Silva, Brenner.

Subs: G Silva for Victor and M Pereira for Silva (both 61); E Manoel for Brenner, P Ferreira for Rocha and L Soares for Cabral (all 75).

Referee: M Jug (Slovenia).