david_smith
Stephen Kenny says the prospect of playing Celtic in the Champions League “is a marvellous incentive†to overcome Rosenborg tonight.
Dundalk must score against the Norwegian side in Trondheim tonight if they are to progress to the next round of qualifiers after a 1-1 draw at Oriel Park last week.
David McMillan put the Lilywhites ahead with an excellent header in the first half, but a sloppily conceded goal on the stroke of half time gifted the visitors a crucial away goal in Louth.
“There’s a huge incentive regardless of who we’re playing,” the Dundalk boss told RTÉ Sport.
“The fact it’s Celtic increases the profile of everything. They’re a great club. But we’re not booking our hotels for Glasgow just yet. Rosenborg might have booked them, but we have to focus purely on pulling off a great performance.â€
Kenny concedes that the Irish club will have to pull off “one of the great performances in Irish football history†to beat Rosenborg, but says his players are confident ahead of the second leg tonight.
“There’s a marvellous incentive to win this. We’d be guaranteed another four games in Europe – minimum. It’s going to have to be one of the great performances in Irish football history to knock Rosenborg out away from home in the Champions League. Hopefully we can drive on and do that.”
“We understand it’s a different challenge away from home. Rosenborg will be well supported and will be a different proposition in Norway but we travel in a confident frame of mind.
“We’ve practised penalties already. We’ve covered every scenario. People are fixated on the fact that we conceded the away goal but that only becomes relevant if it’s a 0-0 draw.
“We have to believe we can score. I don’t think Rosenborg will sit back either. They’re at home, they’ll want to take the game to us and try to finish us off. There could be goals in the game.”
