UEFA Conference League Qualifier Preview: Shelbourne -v- FC Zürich

Shelbourne

Shelbourne will be hoping for a European Miracle on Thursday night as they look to overturn a three-goal deficit against FC Zurich in Tolka Park to have any chance of progressing to the third qualifying round of the UEFA Conference League.

A disappointing 3-0 loss in Zurich last Thursday has given Damien Duff’s men a ‘mountain to climb’ but Duff believes his side still have a chance of overturing the Swiss giants.

“Is the tie dead?” said Duff to the Shelbourne media. “No, it’s not dead but we’ve given ourselves a mountain to climb."

Duff spoke of the regrets of last week’s performance, and he’ll be hoping for a better start than last week after conceding within the first minute of the first leg.

“We watched it back a few times, we were against a bloody good team, absolutely. But are we that poor as a team, absolutely not.

“Three nil, the manor of the goals were so poor.”

On the injury front, Shels are almost at full health. Dean Williams is set to miss out the next couple of weeks with an injury, while Sean Boyd is a doubt to play on Thursday but will be fit for Monday’s clash against Derry City.

Sean Gannon is still suspended, ‘for doing nothing’ according to Duff, after the red card incident in Gibraltar.

FC Zürich

Zurich come into Thursday’s clash against Shelbourne knowing that unless they have a Barcelona-esqe collapse at Anfield, they’ll be in the hat for the next round for the Conference League qualifiers.

A 3-0 dominate victory last week puts the visitors in a strong position to progress after goals from Ifeanyi Mathew and a brace from Antonio Marchesano sealed the first leg win.

The Swiss side have started the season well after they won two from two defeating Winterthur at the weekend 4-2 in the Swiss Super League.

There is an Irish connection in the Swiss side with Armstrong Okoflex who signed for the club last August.

Okoflex worked with Shels boss Duff when the two were at Celtic, and called the former Republic of Ireland player ‘a crazy guy’.

“Damien Duff was my coach at Celtic. Just a crazy guy. He was really good.

I owe a lot of my development to him. He was at Celtic to help me and one other winger especially because when he was playing he was, obviously, a world-class winger in his days, so I learned as much as I could from him”.

Referee: Robertas Valikonis (Lithuania)

PREDICTION

1-2 away win

Shelbourne

Injured: Dean Williams.

Doubtful: Sean Boyd.

Suspended: Sean Gannon.

FC Zurich

Injured: N/A

Doubtful: N/A

Suspended: N/A

Shelbourne hit with €21,250 fine by UEFA including €10,000 for ‘provocative political’ chanting - https://t.co/94rjArr8tjhttps://t.co/vwYs0ayS6v

— extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) July 31, 2024