Dundalk 1
Maccabi Tel Aviv 0
ON HIS 28TH birthday, Ciaran Kilduff again proved Dundalk’s hero as they claimed another historic European win at Tallaght Stadium — the most impressive one yet.
Just like he did in Alkmaar two weeks ago, the striker was sprung from the bench to grab a huge Europa League goal in the dying minutes.
This time, however, it was to clinch all three points as opposed to just one as the Lilywhites saw off Maccabi Tel Aviv with a 1-0 victory to climb to second in Group D.
With captain Stephen O’Donnell suspended after his red card in the 1-1 draw with AZ Alkmaar, Chris Shields came into the Lilywhites midfield. The one other change saw Robbie Benson replace John Mountney.
Former Rangers and Ajax striker Shota Arveladze, now managing the 21-time Israeli champions, was forced into one switch of his own as Dor Peretz replaced the suspended Elazar Dasi at right full-back in a team that boasted ten full internationals.
Dundalk started superbly and cut the Maccabi defence wide open with less than two minutes on the clock. David McMillan helped on a ball out of defence to put through Patrick McEleney, who started out wide right with Benson in behind the lone striker.
With just the goalkeeper to beat, the ex-Derry City man shot straight at Serbian international Predrag Rajkovic, who played against Ireland in a World Cup qualifier earlier this month.
Stephen Kenny said this week that his team deserve their place in this competition and they certainly didn’t look out of place in the opening exchanges. Ronan Finn forced Rajkovic into two saves — keeping the ball out with his feet before punching out of play — and Benson had a penalty claim on 20 minutes.
The midfielder was caught by Omri Ben Harush inside Maccabi’s area but not enough to warrant a penalty, according to Latvian referee Andris Treimanis.
With Ireland manager Martin O’Neill watching on from the stands, Horgan stung the hands of Rajkovic and McEleney shot wide after stepping inside onto his left foot.
Contrastingly, the visitors were restricted to a couple of wayward efforts in a fine 45 minutes of football for the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division champions.
Maccabi began to enjoy spells of possession after the interval and came more into the game, but Dundalk continued to threaten with Shields shooting too high.
Meanwhile, Ben Harush and Vidar Orn Kjartansson couldn’t keep their efforts down either down the other end.
Kenny brought on Kilduff just after the hour mark and he made an instant impact — heading inches over from a Finn cross.
He made no mistake on 72 minutes, however, latching onto an inch-perfect cross from Horgan to sidefoot home the volley.
A magical night — They’re becoming a regular occurrence for this remarkable team.
DUNDALK: Rogers; Gannon, Boyle (c), Gartland, Massey; Benson (Shiels 85), Shields, Finn, Horgan, McEleney (Mountney 75); McMillan (Kilduff 64).
MACCABI TEL AVIV: Rajkovic; Peretz, Ben Haim, Tibi, Ben Harush; Igiebor (Miha 59), Alberman (c) (Itzhaki 78), Medunjanin, Scarione, Kjartansson, Ben Chaim (Benayoun 82).
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Qualification for the knockout stage must be the aim now. I’d be delighted with a point from the next two matches with Zenit. A win against AZ could even be enough, if Zenit smash everyone.
Dundalk play more positive technical football than Ireland and thats a fact! Hon the LOI!
I hope you are not joking they actually do, these guys are no mugs, this is the first time in Irish footballing history that we have a real team that would certainly not look out of in the English championship
@Stuart Kelly: ah jaysus, the English Championship would ruin them.
@Stuart Kelly: Hardly the first time.. look at where most of the current Irish squad used to play.
Well done the boys of dundalk
As a Shamrock Rovers fan, tip of the hat to Dundalk for again demonstrating how good our league actually is. Hopefully, they’ll use the prize money to finally sort Oriel Park out, otherwise they’ll eventually have nothing to show for their spell in the sunshine.
Get rid of the shed you mean?
Brendan, just wondering are Rovers getting a rental fee for these games? If so the benefit truly is spread through the LOI
The owners (SDCC) I assume get the rental
Tallaght stadium is owned by council.
The benefit for the LOI is for more Irish people to support their local team. Us LOI lot see this stuff every week, so the rest of you might switch off the telly this Friday night, go into your local LOI club instead and see for yourself !!
Rovers don’t own tallaght. Sdcc will get the rent
Cmon the Town
And now the talk goes from,” can they get a win”? To “can they get out of the group”?
Horgan proving himself better option than McGeady yet again
Thought he actually played within himself a bit tonight, expected more from him
Is he up to moving to a higher standard though? Does he want it?
And play championship. When he’s playing regularly in Europe.
Brilliant result
Fantastic result gives them a realistic chance of qualifying now, if they beat AZ at home it could be enough.
Great to see a team from the Republic doing so well. Tremendous result, a great boost for LOI football.
Why reference the republic specifically? What if it was an Irish team based outside the republic e.g. Derry city – would you congratulate them?
Ah Beal Bocht, it’s rare Leo Lowe has anything nice to say about to do with the Republic, I say leave him alone enjoy this rare occurence and bask in Dundalk’s success.
Wouldn’t congratulate Linfield if you paid me. Mind you, not a dilemma I’m likely to face any time soon
Fiachra, I’m pretty sure it was one of his sneaky troll efforts, that’s why I asked him about his specific reference to the republic, you see Leo thinks Ireland ends at Dundalk and I’m sure he thought it was smart to reference LOI and the republic (as a side swipe at Celtic fans also of course), forgetting that the likes of Derry city are Irish and in the LOI as well
@Brendan Moriarty: REAL Loi and IL fans are past all that bigotry nonsense years ago. AS proven when we had the Setanta cup.
4 points, fantastic achievement yet not surprising anymore given how good that team are. Well done Dundalk
Proud night for Irish football.
Fantastic win for Dundalk. Fair dues !! Surley Horgan must be in contention for an Ireland call up FFS !!!!
@IrishOwl: To be fair he has more important games to play for Dundalk that to be pointlessly put on the bench for Ireland. Bt the FAI could get their fingers out of their backside by helping with Dundalks upcoming fixtures.
Fair point. He is quality though. The Fai will do feck all to help. Shame…. I say that as a Corkman.
By halftime, I fully expected us to win. We were simply better. What a difference 4 years and a genius of a manager makes
Definitely, could you see Ireland ever making a move for him?
@Dave Murray: Hope hed tell them to f off. Would you want Delaney as your boss?
David Fairclough – super sub
Kenny should throw his hat in for the Inter Milan job, de Boer is not going to last much longer.
Absolutely delighted, Dundalk will be favourites going into the return leg. (Bohs fan)
Brilliant result for Dundalk, amazing stuff. What was the attendance tonight?
Sold out, think it’s a 10,000 stadium
@Dave Murray: I thought it only holds 6,000 or so?
There were some empty seats there, official attendance was 5,500 or so.
If they made it out of group it would be better than the Leicester story in some ways – the odds are always stacked against a LOI team given we are next door to the premiership
Just decorating my band wagon at the moment.
Everyone is welcome on the bandwagon folks. LOI teams deserve another look by anyone who has only ever watched the english premiership. Dundalk play quality football, dare I say it better than the current Irish team.
That pic of the Tel Aviv manager and his assistant is crying out to be made into a meme.
“Who the f$&k is that guy”
Great result.
Magic stuff. Great to see mon in the crowd. Hope he’s actually taking note though rather than just doing his duty. Great night though. Would loved to have been there
As a Cork City fan, wish Dundalk all the best going forward.
Except in the league… We want Cork City to catch them there…
Fair play though… Magical stuff
LOI has so much potential to go up a gear and really entice people to games but the FAI haven’t reacted or got involved enough.
I was at the game last night and a lot of the ‘home’ fans arrived a bit late because they couldn’t find the stadium. Not their fault, I blame the FAI for not investing enough over the years in the developing clubs and local grounds.
Surely the FAI could have provided a fleet of buses from Dundalk up and back?
The league needs to be taken on by a sponsor who will market it correctly. Our league offers potential club owners a direct chance of getting Champions league Football with small investment.
I hope Dundalk’s efforts are not in vein for the long term
Some of the home fans were late because of an accident on the M1 at junction 4 Donabate….Lorry overturned…then M50 was “expecting delays”….didn’t take away from the night…..worth waiting for….
Macabi Tel Aviv, cant you read
THis was a response to James
Great result, probably should’ve been 2 or 3 nil.
Maccabi who? come back when they beat someone of note. Zenit will smash them and take their souls.
Over the 2 legs James ya reckon?? Oh no wait…
@James: http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/season=2017/matches/round=2000792/match=2019385/postmatch/report/index.html
well done dundalk great to watch a breath of fresh air are ye watching cork city watch and learn/