Date: 25 August 2022
Competition: Europa League Final Qualifying Round
Result: Shamrock Rovers 1 – 0 Ferencvaros (aggregate 1-4)
Tickets: €20 (adult), €7 (kid)
Attendance: 7,163
Game/ Experience Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
The Game: I’ve been a little unfortunate watching Shamrock Rovers European games this season, in that both of the home games I’ve been to have been in practise dead rubbers, with the side already 3-0 down against Ludogorets from the first leg in the Champions League, and 4-0 down in this case. Still, seeing decent European sides in Ireland is always worth doing.
This did feel like a dead rubber of a game. It sold out, perhaps helped by the knowledge that even after their inevitable loss, Rovers’ European adventure would continue in the Conference League group stages, and Ferencvaros were pretty average for the whole game, drawing just one really solid save out of Alan Mannus, who looks a seriously solid keeper.
Rovers won this at the last through a bit of a tap in from Andy Lyons, and that drew an impressive reaction out of a crowd that new their team was out (it is impressive to beat a team like Ferencvaros for a LOI team, regardless of the situation, and worth ranking points for next year’s European games, so definite positives). Overall, though, a bit of a nothing game, made entertaining only by its closing stages and the fact that Rovers matched and in fact marginally outplayed the Hungarian side throughout.
The ground: Given this is the third time since I started writing groundhopping posts that I’ve been to the Tallaght Stadium, I’m not going to dwell on the ground, aside from to say that the North Stand is actually seeing some progress now, and I’m looking forward to seeing it finished, it’ll make for a really nice stadium.
Extras: We had our usual Tallaght McDonalds.
Assorted asides: The group stage draw happened the day after this match. Rovers got Molde, Djurgarden and KAA Gent, which is probably the worst of all worlds in my view: no really massive names (they could have got Fiorentina, West Ham, or Villareal), and yet it’s hard to see them getting out of the group, either. Ah well. I’ll be going to as many of those three home games as I can get into.
My totals for the year so far:
Games: 7. Home wins: 4. Draws: 0 Away wins: 3
Goals: 22. Home goals: 11. Away goals: 11. Goals per game: 3.14
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