Gavin Cooney

SHAMROCK ROVERS WILL face Bulgarian champions Ludogorets in the second qualifying round of the Champions League, having seen off Hibernians of Malta in the first round. 

The Hoops did the bulk of their work in last week’s first leg in Dublin, a 3-0 win allowing them contain limited opposition tonight in what proved to be a blissfully mundane 0-0 draw. Ludogorets now lie in wait, after they saw off the champions of Montenegro 3-0 on aggregate. 

The first leg takes place in Bulgaria next Tuesday, though Rovers’ task looks set to be complicated by a lack of available charter planes. Rovers had a charter flight to Malta but had to fly from Shannon with a lack of availability at Dublin airport, but they currently don’t have that option at all for next week. 

“It doesn’t look like there’s any charters available”, said Rovers manager Stephen Bradley after the 0-0 draw in Malta. “Right now it looks like it will be really, really tricky. We are hoping to becomes clearer over the next day or so.” 

Ludogorets play in Razgrad, in the north-east of Bulgaria. 

They have twice made the Champions League group stages, drawing with Liverpool in 2014/15 and then finishing third behind Arsenal and PSG in 2016/17. The Bulgarian league is significantly stronger than the League of Ireland: where the latter ranks 40th in Uefa’s rankings, the Bulgarian league is 24th. 

“It’s definitely a step up”, said Bradley. “They are definitely a team that will really test us, but this is what we want. We want to be playing at that level. We will do our homework on them, beginning on our way home tonight, and during the week, and we will be ready for them next week.” 

Regardless of the outcome against Ludogorets, Rovers are now guaranteed three more European ties, across the qualifiers of the Champions, Europa, and Conference League groups. They must also win just one more tie to guarantee them a slot in the group stages of the Conference League. Bradley admitted that the club are aware of the significance of their position now, though it won’t be to the forefront of their minds against Ludogorets. 

“We will do everything possible to go and win the next tie. We won’t look at it as if we have fall-backs, we are going to win the tie. We know it’s tough, we know it’s a step up, but we will do everything possible to go through.

“This first game in the Champions League is massive, it opens up so many routes for us. We knew that. But I don’t think the players have played with any fear or apprehension in this tie. This was a completely different performance, but very comfortable and managed the game. We played within ourselves in possession but we’re fine with that because we wanted to protect, rather than win the game, so we limited our options in the attacking part of the pitch. The job was done last week, I thought the players managed that pressure and expectation really well. You’re not blind to it: winning this round is so important to the club and your path.” 

As for tonight, Bradley saluted a professional performance in Malta. 

“It was a poor game but we are happy with that, keep it quiet and go away with the win.

“We haven’t done anything. We have won a tie we expected ourselves to win. We are not off celebrating, jumping around and drinking. It’s well done, job done, travel home tonight and we focus on Bulgaria next week.”