19.45 11 Jul 2013 -
Referee:
Europa League Preview: St. Patrick's Athletic v Zalgiris
- Gareth O'Reilly
- Thu, Jul 11 2013
Pats are expecting a large crowd to descend on Richmond Park on Thursday night for yet another big European tie for the club. Zalgiris, from Lithuania, are the team that stands between them and a place in the second qualifying round of the Europa League.
The Inchicore club showed great fighting Irish spirit to twice come from behind last week in Lithuania. The 2-2 draw is a result which puts Pats firmly in the driving street when they welcome the current Lithuanian league leaders to Dublin.
An 11 game European unbeaten run in Richmond Park certainly means that Liam Buckley and co should be in confident mood come Thursday evening. However speaking ahead of the game Buckley as expected was keen not to let his players get carried away.
“Žalgiris are a very good side and the player’s would back that up having played them in their home ground last week,”
“They are a good side along the lines of Široki Brijeg who we played last year. That was also a draw in the first leg and we found the second leg to be tough so we know that this return game against Žalgiris will also be a real challenge. But from our end of things, we’ve been working well this week in training so we’re hopeful we can get through.”
Buckley also spoke of how impressed the players had been with the great support they had received in Lithuania and how important that it was that a big crowd showed up to see his side over the line on Thursday evening.
“The players have really been boosted by our support this year and I can tell you that they really appreciated the support they got in the first leg. Richmond is a really special place on European nights and can really be a big advantage to us on Thursday if the crowd get behind us on the night. Fingers crossed we’ll see big numbers turn up for the game and we can give the supporters something to shout about.”
Buckley will have a full strength squad to choose from and if selected in the match day squad Philly Hughes could well go on to make his home debut. It could also be a special night for Ian Birmingham who could become Pats all time record European appearance holder.
Ger O'Brien’s screamer of a goal with only a few minutes left to play last week may play a big part in how the second leg plays out with the away goals rule in effect. The defender however stated that if the saints failed to go through it would all have been for nothing.
“Yeah it was great to score at that time in the game. It’s something that hopefully I can look back on in years to come and be proud of, but that is dependent on the result of the tie. If we lose and don’t go through, it’ll mean little. We know what we have to do on Thursday and we’ve been prepared by Liam and the rest of the coaching staff so we’ll be hoping that we can play our game and get through to the next round.”
Referee: Igor Pristovnik (Croatia)
Match Facts
This European two legged battle is the first these two clubs have engaged in.
In last week's game Brendan Clarke made two saves while his counterpart Armantas Vitkauskas was called into action on three occasions.
Christy Fagan has scored four goals in the eight European games he has played in.
Betting
St Patricks Athletic Evens Draw 12/5 Zalgiris 13/5
Prediction: Pats roared on by a vocal home crowd win this on with ease 3-1 and 5-3 on aggregate
About Gareth O'Reilly
Gareth is the Editor of Extratime.ie. Gareth began as a normal reporter covering games all over Dublin before being asked to help out with behind the scene activities and eventually moving into the role of …