Stephen Bradley Furious Over Celje Comments Before European Win

Shamrock Rovers secured a massive Europa League qualifier victory over Slovenia's NK Celje at Tallght Stadium last night, with their 3-1 extra-time win ensuring they will be playing league phase football later this year.

It was a huge game for the League of Ireland champions, who knew that a win in this tie would ensure a minimum of Conference League group stage football in 2024. However, that was certainly not a given, having lost the first leg 1-0 away from home against quality opposition.

In saying that, there is no doubt that they deserved their victory on this occasion.

Shamrock Rovers would lead 2-0 during normal time, with goals from Dylan Watts and Neil Farrugia putting them in the driving seat. While a late strike from Celje would sent the tie to extra-time, Rovers would ultimately get the job done thanks to an extra-time winner from Graham Burke.

That Burkey winner 😍 pic.twitter.com/UsEoHs9YBY

— Shamrock Rovers FC (@ShamrockRovers) August 15, 2024

Shamrock Rovers will now face Greece's PAOK for a place in the Europa League group stage, with even a loss in that tie being rewarded with a spot in the Conference League.

Shamrock Rovers were the better team in last night's game, something that was perhaps not expected by their Slovenian opponents. Celje manager (and former Liverpool winger) Albert Riera suggested before the game that his side were the far superior outfit.

The feeling is that we are the team that should dominate. I would say we are better than the opponent. But in football it’s not about your feelings, you have to show that on the pitch...

We are totally confident. We know what we can do and we’ll try to show we are a better team.

Last night's fixture certainly did not play out in that manner, something the home side were sure to have drawn a huge amount of satisfaction from.

As to whether Stephen Bradley used those words as motivation, his post-match comments would suggest that they were very much a driving factor.

Speaking after the game, he praised the performance of Graham Burke, going on to suggest that there was a serious lack of respect from their opponents in the buildup to this fixture.

There were times tonight, he was unplayable for them. They couldn't get near him. He kept penetrating them.

Over there, even on their pitch, you could see he had the beating of them. And we felt on this pitch he'd cause them real problems and he did that.

We've been trying to get Graham and Jack (Byrne) up to speed for us. They're slowly getting there but I did say to Graham during the week that he'd win us the game tonight. Because you know, you put him in front of goal from 25 yards with that left foot, then it's danger.

They didn't respect us all night. They didn't respect us pre-game. You could see their press was leaving big spaces. And Graham exploited them.

Shamrock Rovers will enter the tie against PAOK as underdogs, although the fact that they have already secured European football will mean that they can view that tie as somewhat of a free hit.

With St Pat's having also advanced to the play-off round of European competition after their impressive victory in Azerbaijan, it was certainly quite the night for League of Ireland sides in Europe.