Shamrock Rovers are guaranteed European group stage football, and will face Ferencvaros in the Europa League play-offs to decide which competition they will be playing in come September.
The first leg takes place on Thursday evening in Budapest, with Rovers hoping to reach the Europa League group stages for only the second time ever.
The game may have an added edge to it, however, after comments made in the buildup to the game. Ferencvaros' sporting director Tamas Hajnal has slammed Shamrock Rovers style of play as "unpleasant" and "British", and said he does not look forward to facing down against the Tallaght side.
Ferencvaros sporting director comes out firing against Shamrock Rovers
Ferencvaros sporting director Tamas Hajnal is certainly confident ahead of the Europa League play-off against Shamrock Rovers. That being said, he does not seem too fond of the style of football employed by Rovers, and said that the Hungarian side would have to prepare specifically to face off with them:
We are the favourites for this match, it will be very important to be able to process this mentally. In the two matches, our goal cannot be other than to reach the group stage of the Europa League, so in this situation we have to accept it.
We also know that Shamrock Rovers play unpleasant, British-style, physical football, and we have to prepare for that, not get into their style, but use our abilities to get into the group stage.
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Rovers got this far by claiming a 5-2 aggregate win over Shkupi in the third qualifying round. The highlight was Gary O'Neill's stunning stoppage time goal in the first leg. They originally entered the Champions League qualifying phase, but were knocked out by Bulgarian side Ludogorets.
𝗖𝗥𝗨𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟 𝗟𝗔𝗧𝗘 𝗚𝗢𝗔𝗟 😍
Scenes in Tallaght ☘️😎#LOI | #UEL | @ShamrockRovers pic.twitter.com/FaUczY7TWn— SSE Airtricity League (@SSEAirtricityLg) August 4, 2022
Shamrock Rovers will face a mammoth tie with Ferencvaros at 5:30pm Irish time on Thursday night, before the second leg back in Dublin next week. Victory would see Rovers through to the Europa League group stages for the first time since 2011-12, but they are guaranteed to be at the very least playing Europa Conference League group stage football this season.
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