DUNDALK v SK RAPID WIEN THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26TH 2020 DUBLIN ARENA | KICK-OFF 8PM
OFFICIAL DUNDALK FC MAGAZINE | ISSUE 12 | €5
FROM THE DUGOUT
e had an 11-day break after the Sligo game which was great because it meant we finally had time to work with the team again which is crucial. The quality of our training has been really good. The past month was really complicated but the break has regenerated us. We have fresh legs, a lot of intensity and the data from our GPS has been good. It gave me the same feeling that I had when I arrived in Dundalk three months ago. I feel really positive again and I believe we are ready to perform again at a high level.
Tonight’s game with Rapid is the beginning of the second set of UEFA Europa League group games and we know that we can really compete at this level. We also understand that we cannot make mistakes and that our performance has to be really intense and
best for Dundalk. I have no problem with that and I hope that whoever comes in is the right person to help the club improve the structure and the strategy. The ‘new boss’ will probably be the connection between the board and us, a leader that will give us direction, a strategy and ideas. In terms of football, I will have to connect RAPID WILL COME TO DUBLIN AND with him and see what RESPECT US AND THEY WILL BE the project is. I am a MORE FOCUSSED. IT IS GOING TO BE coach that works for the company and the MORE DIFFICULT THAN THE LAST company has objectives TIME BUT WE HAVE ALSO LEARNED and the owners have A LOT, WE KNOW THE OPPOSITION A objectives. We have LOT BETTER AND THAT WILL HELP US. to execute those objectives. Technically, how we do that is our also a little bit cleaner decision. Nobody tells us in terms of individual how to play or who to play, mistakes because you can get that is down to us. We will see punished in Europe at any what happens but I am looking moment. In Vienna on Match forward to it. Day 3, we were so close to not only tying the game but Over the past few weeks, winning the game. If Greg we have held discussions with Sloggett’s header went in our players about the future. we might have been talking These talks are going well and about other things but we the club knows what we want lost in the space of just five to do. We hope that our ideas minutes. Because of that, I are the same as the players think tonight’s game will be in terms of contracts, deals, more difficult. Rapid will come money... things like that. If they to Dublin and respect us and are not, then we will need to they will be more focussed. It move forward and look for is going to be more difficult other opportunities. This is than the last time but we have football. If we tell someone also learned a lot, we know that we want them to stay, the opposition a lot better and and they want to leave, then that will help us. what can we do, but we will do whatever is in our power to A lot has been said in the keep the players we like and past couple of weeks about we hope to have some news a new ‘boss’ coming to the for you soon. club. For me, I am happy to work with someone, learn Godetevi la Partita, from someone and collaborate Filippo Giovagnoli with someone to do the
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We had some good news last week when Sean Murray was named as the SWAI Player of the Month. When we arrived we didn’t really know anything about the players but Sean was really intense in practice, looked really exciting and really energetic. He is the kind of box to box midfielder that we like and he has done very well. He has three European goals and they have all come from the same movement, attacking the box after a nice build-up. His timing is excellent. He does it in practice and he is also doing it in the games as well. His award is well deserved and it makes myself and Giuseppe Rossi really happy when we are able to develop players and help them to perform. When you see players perform like Sean, it means you have done something right and important. I hope that we have candidates every month for the award!
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FILIPPO GIOVAGNOLI
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UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE
RAPID WIEN: AN INTRODUCTION the cheeky penalty that still bears his name – had pushed out Celtic before an extraordinary tie against Dynamo Dresden, where they had turned around a 3-0 loss in East Germany with a 5-0 thrashing on home soil. After that, Dynamo Moscow’s felling in the semi-final would seem rather routine.
Martyn Hindley gives an introduction to Rapid Vienna.
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f you like your European football and a bit of nostalgia, there’s a book by a chap called Steven Scragg that you should look up this Christmas. ‘A Tournament Frozen in Time’ chronicles the history of that forgotten relic known as the European Cup Winners’ Cup, a lovably random annual competition that went out with the end of the twentieth century but gives people of a certain age a warm inner glow about midweek football on the tellybox.
was ended by Everton in what was to be English club football’s penultimate act on the continent before the Heysel disaster a fortnight later triggered a five-year suspension.
When they made it back to within 90 minutes of the silver eleven years later, they would be edged out by a very different Paris Saint-Germain than we see today, but the two runs are exceptions to Austrian football’s European rule.
Rapid – managed by Otto Baric, captained by talismanic Hans Krankl and featuring Antonin Panenka, the man who won Euro ‘76 for Czechoslovakia with
Red Bull Salzburg have won seven straight Austrian Bundesliga titles but when it came to their Round of 32 tie in the UEFA Europa League last season, they
Rapid Vienna featured in two of its’ finals, runnersup in both 1985 and 1996. Their first near miss came in Rotterdam in May 1985 when their astonishing run 20
There is no doubting that history, tradition and pedigree are of vital importance to Rapid Vienna, who will feel that another chapter can be written in their cross-border history with a few more decent results in this UEFA Europa League group.
SK Rapid: 8 May 1996
were hammered out of sight by Eintracht Frankfurt, 6-3 over the two games. LASK LINZ emerged unscathed from the same stage but their run was soon ended when they lost the first leg in the next round 5-0 to Manchester United.
settled with a remarkable final in Berlin which Schalke had led 3-0 with half-anhour to play before being sunk by four goals in eleven minutes, including a nineminute treble from Franz Binder.
That is not to deny Rapid’s place domestically as Austrian football royalty. Whilst the modern cupboard may be bare (they haven’t won the league since 200708), the GrünWeißen (green-andwhites) have won a record 32 Austrian championships since landing the first over a century ago and also claimed the German title in 1941. That unified competition was
Recently, the club celebrated the 90th anniversary of its victory in the inaugural Mitropacup, believed by many to be the first forerunner of what became the European Cup and then, the UEFA Champions League. The club produced a special publication to mark the anniversary a fortnight ago but the club currently second in the Austrian Bundesliga likely believe that they have many more chapters to write in their European story in the very near future.
Weststadion, Vienna, Austria
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LILYWHITES IN EUROPE
EUROPEAN ROYALTY
Rapid Wien and Everton players line up before the start of the 1985 European Cup Winners Cup final in Rotterdam. The English side won the game 3-1.
Tonight’s UEFA Europa League MD4 clash with Rapid Wien is the 14th time the Lilywhites have crossed paths with a club that has featured in one of European football’s top three competitions. Sean De Loughry takes a closer look.
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he presence of Arsenal and Rapid Wien in Dundalk’s UEFA Europa League group highlights the rarefied company the Lilywhites are keeping in Europe these days. Arsenal are obviously a superclub, competing in the most lucrative, high-profile league in the world but Rapid have their own impressive pedigree. Indeed, the venerable Austrian powerhouse have previously played in two European competition finals, finishing as European Cup Winners Cup runners-up twice, in 1985 and, most recently, in 1996. Looking through the archives,
it appears that Rapid are Dundalk’s 14th European antagonist to have reached a European final. For the purpose of this article, we’re ignoring the UEFA Super Cup, various iterations of the FIFA World Club Cup and, of course, the UEFA Intertoto Cup! Dundalk’s first European opponent to play in a major final were our 1968-69 Fairs Cup conquerors, Rangers, three times European Cup Winners Cup finalists and one-time UEFA Cup finalists. That latter appearance came in 2008 the season that Dundalk won promotion from the first division - when Zenit Saint Petersburg beat the Gers in Manchester. European football aristocracy followed the next season, when 30
Liverpool rolled into town. The Anfield side have notched up no fewer than 13 European final appearances (five European Cup, four UEFA Champions League, two UEFA Cup, one UEFA Europa League and one European Cup Winners Cup). As we went in the seventies, Dundalk’s opponents in the 1976-77 European Cup were Dutch masters PSV Eindhoven, UEFA Cup winners the following season, and European Cup winners in 1988. The Lilywhites memorably clashed with Celtic in 1979. The Hoops were crowned European Cup winners 12 years earlier in 1967, were runners-up in 70 and were beaten by Jose Mourinho’s Porto in the 2003 UEFA Cup final.
Action from the 1997 European Cup Winners Cup final between Rapid Wien and Paris St Germain in Italy. PSG won the game 1-0.
In the eighties, our 1980-81 UEFA Cup opponents Porto actually played a European final in Ireland, beating compatriots Braga at the Dublin Arena in the 2011 UEFA Europa League final. That was one of five European finals for Porto. Next up for Dundalk were Spurs. The fivetime European finalists scraped past Dundalk in the 1981-82 Cup Winners Cup. Dundalk locked horns with Liverpool again in 1982 before hosting more European football royalty in the form of Ajax. The three-in-a-row European Cup winners are one of only five clubs to have won all three major European trophies and have made 10 final appearances in all. They were too strong for Dundalk in the 1987-88
European Cup Winners Cup. The big names kept coming to Oriel Park in the 80s, with Red Star Belgrade easing past Turlough O’Connor’s Dundalk in 1988. Two seasons later they won the European Cup, beating Marseille on penalties.. 1979 European Cup finalists Malmo played Dundalk - albeit at United Park in Drogheda - in the 1995-96 UEFA Cup and the 2016 UEFA Europa League group phase brought us into contact with 1981 UEFA Cup runners-up AZ Alkmaar and 2008 winners Zenit. Last season’s UEFA Europa League opponents Slovan Bratislava were 1969 European Cup Winners Cup finalists and Arsenal have played no fewer than seven European deciders 31
(one UEFA Champions League, three European Cup Winners Cup, one Fairs Cup and two UEFA Cup), winning just two, the Fairs Cup in 1970 and the Cup Winners Cup in ‘94. In addition, some of our former European opponents such as Zurich, Vasas, Hajduk Split and Legia Warsaw have also made it to European semifinals while we’ve also played a host of European finalists in friendlies with clubs such as Manchester United, Chelsea, Everton, Aston Villa, Manchester City, Wolves, Nottingham Forest, Leeds United, Birmingham City, Aberdeen, Dundee United, Torino and CSKA Moscow all coming up against the Lilywhites at some stage over the years.
Wembley Stadium the previous May, with the winning goal scored by Argentinian, Ricky Villa! The Spurs side was packed full of household names, Ossie Ardiles, Glen Hoddle, Steve Archibald, Garth Crooks and Republic of Ireland international players Chris Hughton and Tony Galvin. While it was an extremely high profile and financially lucrative draw for Dundalk, there was also a sense of reality. In the first round, Spurs beat Ajax Amsterdam 6-1 on aggregate so Dundalk went into the tie as big underdogs! The Spurs goalkeeper in both legs of the tie was the recently deceased Ray Clemence, who made the switch to White Hart Lane from Liverpool after
winning his third European Cup medal with the Reds against Real Madrid in Paris the previous May. This proved to be Clemence’s second visit to Oriel Park after he lined out in goal for the InterCities Fairs Cup second-leg tie at the Carrick Road venue in 40
1969. After winning the first leg at Anfield 10-0, Liverpool put four more past the Lilywhites in the return game. The less said about that tie the better, let’s just say Ray wasn’t overworked in either game! Those two games against Dundalk were only his second and third appearances for Liverpool. By all accounts, Clemence not only had a fantastic club and international goalkeeping career, but was also regarded as a thoroughly decent man who was held in high regard by everyone! May he rest in peace! Notwithstanding their underdog tag, the derogatory comments about Dundalk and their ‘part-time’ status in sections of the British
press served only to motivate Dundalk. “Believe it or not, even though we were ‘no-hopers’, there was a belief amongst us that we could eke out a result,” said Mick Fairclough. “There definitely was. We firmly believed, going out onto the pitch ‘we can get a result here’. The official attendance for the first leg at Oriel Park on October 21st was a whopping 18,000 and as it turned out the home side made it a very uncomfortable evening for their high profile visitors! Dundalk matched their opponents for the whole 90 minutes and almost made a dream start when a poor back pass from centre half Graham Roberts went wide of Clemence, allowing Hilary Carlyle to nip in but he just failed to score from a nearly impossible angle.
Fairclough saw a header from a Barry Kehoe corner headed off the line by Hughton but a few errors in the Dundalk defence at the end of the first half almost gave Spurs the lead. Garth Crooks did put the 41
Londoners in front after 63 minutes when he latched onto a through ball from Hoddle and rounded Blackmore to slot the ball into the back of the empty net. With Tottenham in the
DAVID MCMILLAN
EUROSTAR! With 11 European goals to his name, David McMillan proudly sits alongside Liam Brady and Glen Crowe on the list of top Irish goalscorers in UEFA club competitions. Only Derek Dougan (12), Robbie Keane (15) and Roy Keane (15) have scored more than the Lilywhites striker who sat down with Gavin McLaughlin recently to go through his personal haul.
The first Irishman to score in Kazakhstan.... FC Shakhter Karagandy 2-1 St Patrick’s Athletic UEFA Europa League QR2 first leg | July 14th, 2011 Stadion Shakhter, Kazakhstan McMillan’s first on the continent came nine years ago in the colours of St Patrick’s Athletic, 6,545 km away to be precise! After overcoming IBV from Iceland in the first qualifying round of the 2011/12 UEFA Europa League, Pats’ ‘reward’ was a showdown with Shakhter Karagandy with the first leg in Kazakhstan. A gruelling 18-hour trek meant that manager Pete Mahon was feeling less than confident before the game, to say the least! “I’ll be honest,” he said, “if we can pull this one off, it will be a miracle.” After falling behind to a Nikola Vasiljevic goal, the Shakhter defender flicking a near-post header past Gary Rogers, Pat’s rallied and 16 minutes after being introduced for Anto Murphy, McMillan bagged a vital away goal.
4 August 2011; David McMillan arrives at Tallaght Stadium before St Patrick’s Athletic’s UEFA Europa League game with Karpaty Lviv
“I think I was the first Irishman to score in Kazakhstan,” he smiled. “It was a strange trip. We went on domestic flights and the kitman had to go and get our visas in London and he just about made it back before our second flight. We ended up staying three hours away from the ground because teams had been giving out about food poisoning on previous trips to Karagandy!” Like xx of his other European strikes, it was scored with his head. Shakhter goalkeeper
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Aleksandr Grigorenko did well to palm Stephen Bradley’s free-kick away and when Ian Daly lifted the ball back across the face of goal, McMillan was perfectly placed to make it 1-1. If David had not put the chance away, another McMillan certainly would have as his elder brother, Evan, was well placed on the six-yard line in anticipation of any scraps that might have fallen his way! “If I had missed it, he certainly would have let me know about it!”, said David. Vasiljevic added a second to give Shakhter a one-goal advantage ahead of the second leg in Dublin but Pat’s produced a fine display, winning 2-0 to secure a 3-2 aggregate win. Evan got on the scoresheet at Richmond Park, putting the Saints in front after 14 minutes before Derek Doyle, a promotion winner with Dundalk in 2008, added a second. McMillan came off the bench again, replacing Danny North in the latter stages. Pats’ European dream ended in the third qualifying round when they were beaten 5-1 on aggregate by Karpaty Lviv from the Ukraine.
12 July 2017; David McMillan wheels away in celebration after putting Dundalk in front against Rosenborg at Oriel Park
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EXTRA TIME
THE SPECTATOR
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hat a crazy season it’s been around Oriel Park. Or so it seems through the prism of my TV. The domestic season has been, shall we say, trying. The European bits, on the other hand, have been a joyous escape, a throwback to the good old days of McLaughlin, Kenny and pre-COVID and sandwiched between limp defeats against Waterford and Sligo Rovers and a draw
at Pat’s were two more heart-warming, energising, proud performances at Arsenal and Rapid Vienna. It seems almost churlish to come away from Austria disappointed to have lost 4-3. No Irish club has ever beaten Austria opposition, and the lean, professional Austrian League is in a different orbit to the humble League of Ireland. The Austrian Bundesliga is ranked 12th in Europe, just behind Holland and
Turkey, ahead of the Czech Republic, Greece, Croatia and Denmark. The League of Ireland languishes in 37th between Albania and Finland. Indeed, Austria are ranked high enough to have two teams in the UEFA Champions League. Champions RB Salzburg started in the playoff round of the champions route - three rounds after Dundalk started against Celje - while runners-up Rapid started in the second qualifying round for 68
non-champions. After beating Lokomotiva Zagreb in Croatia, Rapid beat then lost to Gent in Belgium to parachute into the UEFA Europa League groups. Dundalk took a more circuitous route. The Lilywhites have shown scant regard for reputations in Europe in recent times, be that BATE, Zenit, Rosenborg, Sheriff, AZ, Hajduk, Arsenal or Rapid. The Viennese game, in particular, felt like a throwback to 2016, with a swashbuckling Dundalk
traversing Europe, going toe-to-toe with European aristocracy. It was great to see Chris Shields reprise his role as the Ginger Pirlo, dominating midfield in an outstanding performance. Patrick Hoban’s bravura showing up front showed maturity and professionalism, Davey Mac moved joint top of the League of Ireland goalscorer list in European football and Nathan Oduwa showcased the sheer delightful attacking threat he can bring.
THE LEAN, PROFESSIONAL AUSTRIAN LEAGUE IS IN A DIFFERENT ORBIT TO THE HUMBLE LEAGUE OF IRELAND. THE AUSTRIAN BUNDESLIGA IS RANKED 12TH IN EUROPE, JUST BEHIND HOLLAND AND TURKEY, AHEAD OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC, GREECE, CROATIA AND DENMARK. THE LEAGUE OF IRELAND LANGUISHES IN 37TH BETWEEN ALBANIA AND FINLAND.
Since the Celje disaster the European performances have been consistently strong, in stark contrast to our laboured
efforts at home. Andorran champions Inter-Club and Faroese kingpins KI were dealt with in a professional manner, the wonderful 69
display against doughty Euro veterans Sheriff in Moldova was an absolute highlight, there was a superb 45 minutes against Molde, an impressive backfoot effort against Arsenal and a crazy slugfest in Vienna. Dundalk’s enduring love affair with Europe continues, unabated by global pandemics or indifferent domestic form. Who’s to bet against another chapter being written in the great Dundalk in Europe history book tonight?