Europa League Preview: KR Reyjkavik -v- Cork City

KR Reyjkavik

The Icelandic team who will be holding the advantage going into the second leg of this Europa League Qualifier will be in a buoyant mode going into this game having defeated FH Hafnarfjörður 2-1 last Sunday.

The Icelandic venue that has a capacity of 1,700 has been a tough ground for visiting clubs over the recent years with Scottish Champions Celtic only managing a single goal victory last year with a Callum McGregor goal.

Reyjkavik proved dangerous from corners last week proving successful on one occasion in Cork and will be hoping to do similar at home this week with the visit of Cork City, who were victorious back in 2007 on their last visit to the land of fire and ice.

Cork City

The rebel army will be making one change certainly for the away leg of this Europa League fixture with Billy Dennehy unavailable. Caulfield explained to Red FM earlier in the week that Dennehy “is not in our plans for the away fixture”, yet many people have speculated saying this is in response to the incident with Mark O’Sullivan at the final whistle in Turners Cross. Limerick manager Martin Russell has contacted John Caulfield seeking out the availability of the winger who is the current joint top scorer in the Cork City team.

The club record appearance holder speaking to the media in Iceland today is confident of his side’s ability going into the game as a result of using Lisa Fallon’s scouting analysis in recent weeks when she did scouting trips to watch KR in action. “The mood is fantastic; the lads are really looking forward to it. We know it will be difficult, but we feel we can get a result. I think the game will go right to the wire. We’ve had a good few chats, we’ve done a lot of video analysis and we are just waiting to get out on the pitch.”

Caulfield was disappointed with the concession of the goal from a set piece last week and as a result the team were unable to get a win. Yet he took positives from the game especially that of the last twenty minutes when he went to a long ball tactic that nearly proved effective in comparison to the first half effort. “It was disappointing because I felt we were good enough to win the match, but we made a lot of errors that we wouldn’t normally make. I still think there were good patches of play, particularly in the last twenty minutes, where we did well, but we didn’t get the goal.”

The City team travelled to Iceland on Tuesday and he is happy with the preparation for the game. It will be a game that will have a large travelling support numbering in their hundreds and as a result the atmosphere created could be of huge benefit to the Leesiders. “We’ve prepared well and we are all looking forward to it; the atmosphere is good and we just want to get out on the pitch and hit the ground running.”

Referee: Aleksandrs Anufrijevs (Lativa)

Match Facts

Setanta Ireland will be covering the match live with the game kicking off at 8.15pm Irish time.

If Dan Murray features on Thursday night, he will equal Michael Devine and Colin O’Brien’s joint record of 23 European appearances for Cork City.

Cork City have twice progressed in Europe by virtue of away goals and the Leesiders have yet to be involved in a European penalty shootout.

KR

Injured: Unknown

Doubtful: Unknown

Suspensions: None

Cork City

Injured: Kieran Djilali, Darren Dennehy, John Kavanagh

Doubtful: Rob Lehane

Suspensions: None