THE TIE could not be more delicately poised and the stakes could scarcely be higher.
But Stephen Bradley believes there is little point in Shamrock Rovers practising penalties ahead of their Champions League clash against Vikingur.
For the second year running, Icelandic opposition have provided the first hurdle for the Hoops in Europe.
Rewind 12 months ago and Rovers were beaten home and away by Breidablik. Dropping down to the Conference League did not provide much consolation.
They got a tough draw against Ferencvaros and after conceding six goals without reply over the two legs they were out of Europe.
The current campaign has started on a more positive note, with a scoreless draw achieved in Reykjavik last week despite the dismissal of Darragh Nugent.
There is an air of confidence that they can get the job done in front of an expected crowd of around 7,000 at Tallaght Stadium.
But a dry run of spot-kicks is not part of Bradley’s preparations as he explained.
NO PENS
He said: We could stay out there for four or five hours doing penalties but it’s a completely different situation in Tallaght Stadium when there are thousands there, the whole arena changes.
“For players, you pick your spot, stay with that spot and hit the ball. If the keeper makes a good save he makes a good save, if you miss you miss. That’s the way it goes.
“Taking 20 penalties in training isn’t going to change what you are going to do tonight. Will players always stay back and practise, yeah, but as a group I don’t see the sense in that.
“Just as a player, I remember practising them and then you go up on the day of a game and its completely different.
“If you always go left as a player, just stay left and hit it as well as you can, if you go right you go right, middle whatever it is, just don’t dink it!
“What will be, will be. I don’t see how going up and practising them for hours makes any difference to be honest.”
Bradley admitted he would have a list of designated takers but pointed to their experience against Ilves of Finland four years ago, when Rovers won 12-11 in a shootout, for evidence of how even that can be redundant.
He said: “Dylan Watts would be one of the first ones, but he may be having one of those games where he can’t get the touch.
“And I have been in those games where you may be first up but you are just not feeling it that day, in terms of the touch, feel weight off pass is off and you don’t fancy it.
“That can happen. We would have an idea but it’s at that moment, who fancies it, if they put their hands up you back them then. I think it’s all well and good having your seven, eight, nine.
“Against Ilves, we had 12 or 13 penalties. In general when players put their hands up you just have to back them.”
This evening, Rovers will welcome back Lee Grace from injury. But, as well as the suspended Nugent, Rovers are still missing Rory Gaffney, Aaron Greene, Markus Poom and Graham Burke.
Bradley is anticipating another tight game and is hoping his side can be more clinical in front of goal, although he does not believe Johnny Kenny will be adversely affected by his late missed chance.
TIGHT TEST
He said: “At times it will be similar. We know their style, and how they try to control the game. That does not really change for them, home or away.
“We know what they will try and do and it is more about what we will try and bring to the game
“The fact that 26 of their goals this year have come from crosses tells you it is an area they are really good at. They are really good in wide areas, where they try and exploit you.
“We defended that really well last week. I think we gave up one chance. We have to make sure we are switched on for that.”
“At times we could have been better in the final third over there although we did have really good chances with Darragh and Johnny’s two.
“There were times when we could have hurt them more in that final third and we just did not take care in that final bit.
“Some forwards miss and then don’t put themselves in that position again, because they have a fear of missing. Johnny has no fear of missing.
“Last week he goes for the dink. It doesn’t quite come off. But if you are to put Johnny in that position tonight, he will fancy his chances again.
“He was disappointed after the game, which is natural, but he very quickly moves on.”
And Bradley insisted that nobody in the team will have the implications of the result weighing on their mind.
The introduction of the Europa Conference League in 2021 in theory made it easier for champions of smaller nations such as Ireland to reach the group stages of a competition.
But the Hoops have done it just once in three attempts, in 2022, when they won their first Champions League qualifier, against Hibernians of Malta.
QUALIFYING CAMPAIGN
Winning this evening would make it significantly easier to achieve that again. That is not lost on Bradley but he said: “I don’t think pressure is a word or an issue around here.
“I understand everything around it, financials…it would be good for us. I get all that. But we don’t get sidetracked or focused on that.
“We can’t think like that. We know how important winning this first game is in terms of the tie, the different routes it opens, I think that’s quite obvious.
“We all know that and we’re not oblivious to that.
“We understand that and we’re not trying to hide from that but you can’t bring that into the gameplan, you can’t bring that into your thinking because then you get sidetracked, you lose focus.
“Genuinely we don’t talk about that, we haven’t once spoken about that. It’s just about focusing on the job in hand.
“We went to Iceland, did a decent job and now it’s about focus, take it back to Tallaght and focus on the job in hand.
“If we do our job and win the game we know what it opens up but it really is about focusing on what’s in front of us because lose tonight and that path that you’re so hung up on disappears.”