Lopes looking to bring fighting spirit into league campaign

After their elimination from Europe last Thursday, Shamrock Rovers are very much focussed on domestic action now with a crucial week or so in the league ahead for the Hoops. They begin the final third of their league campaign with matches against Dundalk and Bohemians, beginning with a trip to Oriel Park this Sunday.

If they can get a victory against the Lilywhites, it will move them into third place in the table and back in the automatic European qualification zone. Both sides exited Europe during the week and both will have to leave any tiredness behind them on Sunday.

Dundalk were defeated in extratime in Norway on Wednesday. Rovers were delayed nearly three hours in the Czech Republic flying home in the early hours of Friday morning and extratime.ie caught up with Roberto Lopes during the storm delay.

Looking ahead to the upcoming league fixtures, Lopes was targeting two victories. “We have to go win the next few games,” said Lopes. “These matches against Dundalk and Bohs are massive. If we can win those two games, it would really put us in a strong position in the table.

“It is a game we are really looking forward to (on Sunday). We want to get over the disappointment of being out of Europe as quick as we can. We want to take what we’ve learned from this experience and bring it into the league.”

The sides have met twice this season, with Dundalk winning 2-1 in Oriel Park on the opening night of the season and Rovers winning by the same scoreline in Tallaght.  

“We don’t need any more motivation for these games. You don’t need to get up for it. Dundalk are a good side but we will be ready for them on Sunday.”

Rovers knew the difficult task that they faced in Europe during the week. A minimum 2-0 win was required to overturn the 3-2 first leg deficit against Mlada Boleslav but the Hoops had only scored twice away from home in Europe on one occasion in their last 13 matches (that was in their 2-1 away win over Partizan Belgrade in 2011).

Having endured 30 degree heat in the build up to the game, a storm came in just prior to kick off which made the temperature more “bearable” according to ‘Pico’ Lopes but the Hoops were caught cold by an early goal.

“We are really disappointed how we started the game. We weren’t up to match speed at the start and the early goal killed us. We knew what to expect – they like to get at you and attack. They worked it well.”

The Czech side doubled their lead just after the half an hour mark and that is how the score remained but Rovers can take positives from their second half display – when they twice hit the wordwork, once through a Lopes header, and had a Sean Boyd goal disallowed.

“In the second half I thought we did really well. Maybe they dropped off but we showed our fighting spirit. We are going to take this experience into the league and give it a right go in the rest of the season. We’ve shown, like in the second half today, what a strong group we are and how we can play against really good opposition.

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the European campaign and I’ve learned a lot in the short time we’ve had in Europe. I’m hungry to get back in there.

“The support that we had today it will stick in your memory for years to come. In a 5,000 seater stadium, there were 250 of our own supporters down one end and they were the only supporters you could hear in the stadium. It was just amazing. You get a lift from that. We didn’t get the right result but they backed us all the way.”

Europa League football is done and dusted for @ShamrockRovers for another season pic.twitter.com/SfrR567DeX

— Macdara Ferris (@macdarabueller) July 20, 2017