Europa League Preview: AIK -v- Shamrock Rovers

AIK

AIK take a commanding position back to Stockholm with the tie at its halfway point, having struck late to win 1-0 at Tallaght Stadium last week (kick-off 6pm Irish time).

Wing-back Daniel Sundgren's strike 16 minutes from time was enough to ensure victory for the Swedes as they kept a clean sheet.

Having began cautiously, AIK opened up in the second half and controlled much of the play, and will be expected to continue in the same vein in front of their home fans.

"Hopefully [the goal in Tallaght] will be decisive, but if they score one then all of a sudden they are leading the game, in a way,” said AIK coach Rikard Norling.

"We were favourites before the game but I told everyone to understand that this was a really tough draw for us. I'm not surprised that they played this well."

“Rovers are very good team - I have been here twice as a coach with Malmo and this is the best version I have met as a coach.

"They are a little bit more mobile, they have better individuals and they must have a good coach. They got players into positions that we couldn't deal with.

"Then we started to grow into the game after 30 minutes of the first half. In the second half, we did better, and were more compact and had better control of the ball.”

AIK have no new injuries from the first leg but new signings Sebastian Larsson, Panajotis Dimitriadis and Heradi Rashidi are all ineligible to play.



SHAMROCK ROVERS

Shamrock Rovers face the uphill task of overturning a 1-0 defict at the Friends Arena, the national stadium of Sweden, on Thursday night.

Daniel Sundgren's late goal in Tallaght undid much of the good from a disciplined performance from Stephen Bradley's side.

It means the Hoops will almost certainly need to get the first goal against a side who showed in Tallaght they're well capable of sitting in and defending when required.

“I thought we played well for large parts of the game,” Bradley said in advance of the second leg.

“We maybe could have hurt them more in the final third but we have to remember that we’re playing against a team that are top of the Swedish Premier Division.



“They’re a very good side. So when you take all that into consideration I thought it was a very good performance.

“We have to be very careful how we approach it. We have to score but we needed to score either way. So nothing has changed from our point of view.

“But we have to be careful because we’re playing against a top quality team that can hurt you and we need to respect that.

“We need to make sure that we’re concentrated for 90 minutes. We have to score in the 90 minutes but we don’t have to go mad either. We are [capable of causing an upset].

“We showed in the first leg when we move the ball with the right tempo we can cause them problems and I believe we’ll get opportunities to do that.”

Brandon Miele and Sean Boyd will miss out through injury but Bradley has a full squad to choose from otherwise, with Aaron Greene a possibility to make his full debut.

 

Referee: Nicolas Laforge (Belgium).

 

MATCH STATS

Last week's game in Tallaght was the first time the two sides had ever met.

Shamrock Rovers have faced Swedish opposition once before in Europe, going out 5-1 on aggregate to Djurgardens in the UEFA Cup in 2002-03.

AIK have never faced League of Ireland opposition before this year, but they overcame Linfield 2-1 on aggregate in Europa League qualifying in 2014-15.

 

BETTING

AIK 1/7; Draw 5/1; Shamrock Rovers 13/1.

PREDICTION

AIK 1 – 1 Shamrock Rovers

 

AIK

Injured: None.

Doubtful: None.

Suspended: None.

Unavailable: Sebastian Larsson, Panajotis Dimitriadis, Heradi Rashidi (ineligible).

Shamrock Rovers

Injured: Sean Boyd, Brandon Miele.

Doubtful: None.

Suspended: None.