Kenny admits to tough European draw

Stephen Kenny believes that Belarusian champions FC BATE Borisov represent as tough a challenge as Dundalk could have been given from Monday's Champions League second qualifying round draw, but told Extratime.ie after the match-up had been made: “We ourselves are formidable as well.”

In what will be the Lillywhites' first foray into Europe's premier competition for 20 years, Kenny's side have been given a difficult task in the form of BATE, who have reached the Champions League group stages on four occasions – including three times in the last four seasons. However, the Dundalk manager believes the current form of his side will be a boon heading into the two-legged tie in July.

“It's a tough draw, there's no question about that, I think they have the highest co-efficient of any of the teams we could have got in our section,” said Kenny to Extratime.ie in the hours after the draw. “They've been in the group stages [of European competition] five of the last seven years, so they're obviously a strong team. So, initially, it's as tough a draw as we could've got. On one hand, that's the reaction.

“On the second hand is that, in this year in all competitions, we've won 20, drawn 2 and lost one. In a previous defeat last year, we went on a run of over 20 games without defeat as well, so I think we're in brilliant form overall and we can take great confidence into the European campaign.”

BATE have steadily developed a decent pedigree in European competition since the beginning of the noughties, with their most famous result arguably being the 3-1 home win over Bayern Munich in the 2012/13 Champions League group stages – the Germans recovered from this shock to go on and win the tournament. Kenny believes that the 11-time Belorussian Premier League champions are an example to League of Ireland sides of what can be achieved at the highest level by smaller clubs.

“If anything, they are a very inspiring story themselves, from where they've come from,” said Kenny. “Where they've come from, to be in the group stages five of the last seven years, really using essentially Belorusian players – 14 of the Belorusian [national] squad. They're a great example to us really, as to any team in Ireland, because they're not the biggest of clubs. So, if anything, what they've done gives us every reason to believe that we can win [the tie], because we should be thinking like that as well.”

Kenny was the Bohemians manager in the 2003/04 Champions League campaign when the Gypsies recovered from a 1-0 first-leg defeat to BATE in the Borisov Arena to progress to the second qualifying round with a 3-0 win in Dalymount Park.

The Belarusians have only lost one of their last ten home games in the Champions League qualification rounds and with Dundalk set to travel to Belarus for the first-leg, Kenny understands the importance of scoring an away goal – something the Lillywhites managed in last season's Europa League campaign against Luxembourg outfit Jeunesse Esch and Croatian side Hajduk Split.

“We know logistically it's a difficult one, but we've got to make sure we get out there and prepare well. The away leg, first. That's the difficulty,” admitted Kenny. “We've got to make sure we hit the ground running away. If you're at home first, at least you can keep the tie going. We've got to make sure you perform away from home or else you could find yourself out of the tie. We've got to make sure we prepare well and put in a big performance away from home.

“I think it's important that the tie is very much alive coming to Oriel Park,” added the Dundalk boss. “You'd give anything to score a goal away from home and to score goals away from home. We scored two in Split last year, we scored two in Esch last year as well, so we scored two in both away fixtures last year. We scored over 115 goals or something last year, so we are prolific scorers and we have to try and score away from home again.”

Dundalk's European jaunt last season came to an end at the second qualifying round stage of the Europa League when an impressive 2-1 away win over Split in the Stadion Poljud wasn't enough to cancel out the 2-0 reverse inflicted by the Croats at Oriel Park in the first-leg. Kenny insists his side harbour no regrets about bowing out because of a home loss and believes the experience has made his current group of players stronger.

“We have no regrets about that because it was a great achievement,” said Kenny. “This is different now, we are league champions now and we've got the experience from that. All the players from that team, plus Stephen O'Donnell is back fit and he has European experience. We also have new additions like Ronan Finn and Gary Rogers, so all round we're stronger this year, so we'll look forward to it.”