Shamrock Rovers will be disappointed with the results in Iceland against Breidablik. Photo by George Kelly
The feeling in the dressing room is just total disappointment
Shamrock Rovers will not be advancing to the knockout round of UEFA Conference League following a disappointing 3-1 loss away from home to Breidablik in Iceland last night.
Coming into the game Rovers knew it was a must win as three points against Breidablik and three points against next week’s opponents Hamrun were crucial in order for Rovers to even have a chance of making a play-off spot.
Things were looking positive in the first half after Graham Burke put the away side ahead in the 32nd minute.
The lead would be short lived however with Breidablik drawing level only three short minutes after.
In stormy conditions Rovers battled on but would become undone in the second half of the game conceding two goals in the last 15 minutes and ending their hopes of progression in the tournament.
The result seemed to exemplify what has been typical of Rovers this year in continental football. Putting in good performances but unable to see out the game.
Indeed when looking back on the matches played in Europe this season, aside from the opener against Slavia Prague, Rovers have been more than competitive in their fixtures and were particularly unlucky to not get more out of the games against AEK Athens, Shakhtar and now against Breidablik.
Manager Stephen Bradley spoke on the performance of his side in the game. “We came away from what we were doing in the first half, which was working. We couldn’t get control in the game because of that.
“That’s down to us not to do with the weather, nothing to do with the pitch, not to do anything like that. We stopped doing what we were working on and as a result, we lost control.”
“When you do that, you lose control of the game and then if it comes a bit of a basketball game and anything can happen, that’s very unlike us, but we did that in the second half.”
“You can’t be reactionary to what has happened in one year. That’s not how it should look.”
“For me, there’s no sense in that at all because then you can go back to all the moments of the game and before you know it, where do you stop?”
“You have to understand that we know in Europe, we’re an experienced team in Europe, we know quite well if you switch off for a second, you get punished.”
“We did that after they scored. They equalised and then we did it in the second half.”
Rory Gaffney seemed to share a similar opinion, frustrated Rovers did not have more than a single point heading into the last two games of the European campaign.
“Last year the draw was favourable, it was nice to us. This year it was a lot tougher. But the experience we have, the team we’ve played, we’ve come away disappointed which probably says where the group is at and where the club is at.
“You play Shakhtar Donetsk and you’re giving out that you lose 2-1 and you go away to Athens…disappointed not to win the game that night. Overall, the feeling in the dressing room is just total disappointment.”
“We didn’t even get a chance to bring it to Tallaght next week and maybe packed out the ground and hopefully got a win and then maybe seven points might have been enough…Who knows? It doesn’t matter now.”
