Champions League Preview: Dundalk -v- BATE

DUNDALK

Over the past three seasons Dundalk have proved time and again that they are the best side in the League of Ireland. Tuesday night they have the chance to possibly put a seal on the argument that they are the best ever League of Ireland side.

If they knock out BATE Borisov, they enter the heady heights of the Champions League play-off where big money and big teams await. Even then they will have the security of knowing a loss in that round will drop them into the Group Stages of the Europa League.

Stephen Kenny’s men will take on the Belarusian champions in Tallaght Stadium (kick-off 8pm live on eir Sport) due to Oriel Park not being adequate for this stage of the Champions League. The Lilywhites earned the right of entry into the competition by securing the league title towards the end of the season in Tallaght at the home of Shamrock Rovers.

The Hoops are the only League of Ireland side to date to qualify for the group stages of a major European club competition but Dundalk can do just that if they can overcome the 1-0 first leg deficit that BATE Borisov bring to Dublin.

Dundalk are on course to win three consecutive league titles. The last club to do that was Shamrock Rovers’ four-in-a-row team of the 1980s but the Hoops never made a breakthrough in Europe back then. There would be a certain irony for Kenny, who hails from Tallaght, to match Rovers’ 2011 qualification in the stadium where he managed for less than a season in 2012.

Kenny was shown the door soon after the Hoops first hurdle early European elimination to Ekranas from Lithuania (a club who went to the wall in 2014). Since then Kenny has single-handily moulded a Dundalk squad whose attacking brand of football has secured major honours, as well as earning plaudits. They have won back-to-back league titles with an FAI Cup lifted last season too by Captain Stephen O’Donnell.

It was O’Donnell who scored the penalty that earned Shamrock Rovers their Europa League play-off win. O’Donnell and Ronan Finn, along with Ciaran Kilduff, subsequently played in the 2011 Group Stages with Rovers but O’Donnell and Finn are doubts for the game with knee and groin injuries respectively. Brian Gartland will definitely miss the game due to his wrist injury.

“The fact that we are in Dublin here tomorrow is not a problem for us as a team,” said Stephen Kenny speaking to the assembled media in Tallaght Stadium on the eve of this massive match. “I think we are ready for the game. We’re bringing a big travelling support from Dundalk. Hopefully some of the Dublin footballing public would like to come and support the team and have a look at a Champions League game.

“These nights create history - getting to the third round of the Champions League knowing that if you win you qualifier to the group-stages of a European competition which is huge.”

Dundalk have already earned a guaranteed €700,000, with a further €480,000 to follow should they lose both tomorrow’s tie and the subsequent Europa League play-off. However win tomorrow and on top of that initial €700,000, they would earn €3 million for being in the Champions League Play-Off round.

Should they lose that tie, in the phase where teams such as Manchester City, Porto and Roma enter, they will then be placed directly into the Europa League group stage -earning a further €2.4 million. But first they must overcome BATE and that will be no mean task

“I think their main motivation (of the players) is that they see what could be achieved now by winning prizes, playing against the top teams in Europe in great stadiums,” said Kenny.

“It is huge for them; they love the big European games and they want more of them. You could get as many in a season as you could in a lifetime if it goes well.”

You can read Stephen Kenny’s thoughts in full on the match in Aaron Gallagher's report from Monday’s press conference in Tallaght here.

BATE BORISOV

When the sides met in the previous round last season, BATE came away from Oriel Park with a 0-0 draw – just about enough to earn them entry in the next phase with a 2-1 aggregate win. The Belorussian team subsequently made the group stages of the Champions League where they took four points off Italian heavyweights Roma, along with a draw at home to Bayer Leverkusen.

A similar scoreline in Tallaght will again be enough for the Belorussian Premier League leaders to progress. The Lilywhites lost 1-0 away from home in the first leg last Tuesday. Mikhail Gordeichuk was on the scoresheet 20 minutes from the end of the game played in the Borisov Arena.

He scored thanks to a pass from Aleksandr Hleb who re-joined the club in the build up to the game. This is the 35-year-old midfielder’s fourth spell at the club having begun his professional career at BATE before going on to win La Liga and the Champions League with Barcelona in 2009. He also picked up a runners-up medal in the 2006 Champions League final with Arsenal.

BATE are ranked 64^th in the UEFA co-efficients – 295 places higher than the League of Ireland champions. A game into the second half of their domestic season, like Dundalk, they are top of the table. They are ten points clear of second spot in the Vysshaya Liga standings (Dundalk are six clear of second placed Cork City in Ireland).

Referee: Jakob Kehlet (Denmark)

MATCH FACTS

Dundalk have won just four of their last 29 European matches and have only kept eight clean sheets in total in the matches played in Europe. Their record to date reads P53 W10 D11 L32.

This will be Stephen Kenny’s 32^nd match as a manager in European competition. His record reads P31 W8 D11 L12. This will be his 16^th tie overall and he has won 6 and lost 9 of the 15.

BATE have been crowned champions on 12 occasions including the last ten times in a row. They have only failed to qualify for the group stages of the Champions League once in the last five years – that was back in the 2013/14 season.

MATCH BETTING

Dundalk 3/1; Draw 9/4; BATE Borisov 10/11;

PREDICTION

Dundalk 1-2 BATE Borisov

Dundalk

Injured: Brian Gartland.

Doubtful: Stephen O’Donnell, Ronan Finn.

Suspended: None.

BATE Borisov

Injured: None.

Doubtful: Dmitri Antsilevski, Nemanja Milunovic.

Suspended: None.