- Ben Blake reports from Warsaw
ANYONE WHO HADN’T watched either leg of Dundalk’s Champions League play-off with Legia Warsaw may have glanced at the 3-1 aggregate scoreline last night and presumed they had been well-beaten over 180 minutes.
That couldn’t be further from the truth.
Make no mistake about it, the club from Ireland’s smallest county, whose players come from all four corners of this island, stood toe-to-toe with their opponents and matched them in just about every department.
To say the penalty decision in Dublin was contentious is an understatement, while the Poles scored their other two goals in injury-time as Dundalk bodies and minds tired — understandable given the amount of grass they had covered.
That’s not to take anything away from Legia’s achievement, as they go through to the group stages for the first time since facing Blackburn Rovers, Spartak Moscow and Rosenborg back in 1995.
But Stephen Kenny’s team has proven that, despite the limited resources, they can punch above their weight and compete on the European stage with a fearless style of football that’s also pleasing on the eye.
Outstanding around the park with centre-halves Andy Boyle and Paddy Barrett particularly excellent, it was up there as one of the finest team performances from a League of Ireland side in Europe.
Robbie Benson’s thunderbolt deservedly went viral on social media last night — not just in Ireland but also further afield.
A top class strike regardless of what level you’re playing at, and scored by a man who was plying his trade in the SSE Airtricity League First Division with UCD last season as he finished his Masters degree in Actuarial Science.
He’s one of several players Kenny has managed to bring the best out of, including the other man brought in ahead of this season, Patrick McEleney.
The Lilywhites boss, who will surely go down as the one of the greatest managers to grace Irish football, has boldly set his sights on not only taking points off teams in the Europa League, but actually progressing to the knockout stages.
It is five years since his former club Shamrock Rovers became the first LOI club to reach the group stages of the competition, where they failed to pick up a single point under current Northern Ireland boss Michael O’Neill.
While the identity of all 48 sides entering Friday’s draw in Monaco is not yet known as there are still second legs to be played, several big names are sure to be in there including Manchester United, Roma, Inter Milan, Fiorentina, Schalke, Athletic Bilbao and Zenit St Petersburg.
And although newcomers Dundalk will be expected to accumulate the same tally that the Hoops did back in 2011, it feels like this group of players is significantly better-equipped to make the step up.
They don’t possess a huge squad but it will be bolstered by a couple of new signings at least in the coming weeks with former Rangers midfielder Dean Shiels (son of Derry City boss Kenny) and ex-Sligo Rovers full-back Alan Keane believed to be close to joining as free agents.
In terms of a venue, the decision hasn’t yet been made on whether it will be the Aviva Stadium or Tallaght Stadium that hosts the Europa League games.
But Dundalk have clearly captured the imagination of many casual football fans over the past month, so you would like to hope that the 30,147 fans who showed up for the most recent home tie will decide to get behind them once again.
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One of the best performances I’ve seen from any Irish soccer side …..ever.
I’m in my late 50′s and a Pat’s supporter.
Hey Martin,if you could pick one or two of these lads for the Irish squad,that’d be great!thanks….
Why wasn’t there manager a success at rovers ?. I think he’s brilliant..
I must of been watching a different game. Besides a moment of magic from Dundalk the polls were in complete control. Dundalk were praying for half time couldn’t put 3 passes together. After the sending off it looked like the polls had the extra man.
You must of been, probably one of your English teams you were watching.
Which Poll of the Poles did you get that info from?
Paul you must have been watching Celtic, a fully professional team that was stuffed by Legia Warsaw last season and probably wouldn’t beat Dundalk. By the way I’d call myself a Celtic fan.
POLES not polls. Ignorant gobs€ite
Lol they looked awful in the 2nd half, few yards of the pace, 2nd touch was a tackle, couldnt string 2 passes together #awfultack
Is that Villa you’re talking about???? I follow villa too so I see what ya mean
I watch enough dross to be able to call it when i see it!!!
Pity you can’t tell when you’re talking it.
Always sad when you hear lads like El Jefe or Paul above having a go at Dundalk….just too easy to do. I only saw first leg so can’t comment on the second but the very fact that they went away from home and scored such a fabulous goal and held on to their lead til near very end indicates how far this team have come (I won’t say League of Ireland in general)….watching the first leg every player in the Warsaw ranks seemed to be either a full blown international with some country or other or someone who had played for France U21 etc ….probably every player on their starting 11 costing at least a couple of million. Then to have lads having a go at our own (can’t string two passes together etc) who are lads (many with other jobs or just finished college like Robbie Benson) who are getting badly paid and who have at least 10 weeks in the year when they don’t get paid at all is sad I think…..and it was more or less the same story when Shamrock Rovers qualified for the group stages of the Europa a few years back. Instead of celebrating the fact that we finally had a team who had gotten that far instead all you could hear from certain quarters was that they’d be out of their depth etc. Maybe they were but wasn’t it brilliant/amazing that they were there in the first place? It was solid progress for an Irish side and Dundalk seem to be taking the script further.I think the first casualty in any conversation on the progress of Irish sides in Europe is perspective. It’s almost like the Roy Keane mentality has taken hold of the hyper critical fans who will rubbish an Irish side that loses regardless of their circumstances…..an average home gate for Dundalk is 3000. An average gate for Warsaw at home is 25,000 fans. The disparity is enormous in terms of revenue and players to pick from. To castigate the Dundalk players in any way for their displays in either leg (personally thought they were excellent in the first leg) is out of order. Maybe there’s a tiny hint of guilt from guys supporting English teams that they don’t bother supporting our own sides and fall back on the old ploy of rubbishing their own to assuage their own guilt??! G’wan Dundalk!