Tiny Irish club Dundalk will be aiming to create Champions League history ahead of their playoff tie against Polish giants Legia Warsaw at the AVIVA Stadium.
No Irish club have ever reached the group stages of the Champions League and Dundalk are just two games away from creating history after upsetting Belarussian champions BATE Borisov in the third qualifying round. Stephen Kenny’s side overturned a 1-0 deficit from the first leg to register a famous 3-0 triumph in the return leg.
The win over BATE (who have previously played the likes of Barcelona and Bayern in the Champions League) has guaranteed Dundalk £4m in prize money, with the potential of a further £8m likely to come into the club’s coffers if they get past Legia. To put that amount in perspective, Dundalk earned just over £90,000 in prize money for winning the Airtricity League last season. If they beat Legia, the money they’ll get will be more what the FAI (Football Association of Ireland) got as their share for their 2016 European Championships.
The game will played at Dublin’s famous AVIVA Stadium instead of Dundalk’s own humble Oriel Ground, which as recently as half a decade ago, was struggling to attract crowds of over 250 to club games. Dundalk were very nearly relegated four years ago, but Monaghan United ran into financial troubles, thus allowing Dundalk the lifeline of a two legged playoff tie, which they took with both hands by beating Waterford 4-2 to stay up. Since then, there’s been a mini renaissance of sorts, with the club winning the last two Irish league titles.
The club’s star players all have day jobs- forward David McMillan is an architect, left back Dane Massey is an electrician and centre-half Brian Gartland is a basketball coach.
What’s been Dundalk’s path so far?
Second qualifying round- Beat FH (Icelandic champions) on away goals- 3-3 after two legs
Third qualifying round- Beat BATE 3-1 on aggregate
After that 3-0 win over BATE, Dundalk have suffered a blip of sorts, losing 1-0 to Galway United and 2-1 to Bray Wanderers. They’re still top in Ireland, but have won only one of their last five games in all competitions and only three points separate them from second place Derry City.
Legia squeaked past Trencin in the third qualifying round, winning 1-0 in Slovakia and following it up with a goalless draw at home. The defending champions are currently 9th in the Polish Ekstraklasa and like Dundalk, haven’t been in the best of form domestically. The Legia coach has also said he will not take Dundalk lightly, adding that any side that beat BATE 3-0 was deserving of their respect.
Most of the punters have Legia as favourites. If you’re looking to make a first deposit on Bet365, you can see that Legia are currently favourites there at 6/5, with Dundalk being quoted at 14/5. A draw is at 23/10 at the time of writing.
Can Dundalk create Champions League history? A win in the first leg would be handy, leaving them to defend for their lives ahead of the return leg in Poland. It’s the biggest night in the club’s history and is certainly one of the biggest nights in Irish club football history.
Dundalk v Legia
17 August, 2016 (AVIVA Stadium, Dublin)
Champions League Qualifying Round (First Leg)