Joey O'Brien not giving up hope of Shelbourne staging Baku fightback
Shelbourne lost the Champions League second-round qualifier first leg 3-0 in Tolka Park last week, where two late goals gave the visitors a real cushion to take back for the second leg in their home ground. Now the Reds will look to complete the challenging task of somehow reversing that scoreline, and O'Brien believes that the team will be fighting on two fronts at the Tofiq Ismayilov Stadium.
Not only are Shelbourne coming up against a quality outfit like Qarabag, who have been regular participants in UEFA group stage football for the past decade, but the Dublin side will also be battling the elements of a mid-summer's evening in Azerbaijan.
At the pre-match press conference, O'Brien was asked whether he believed in football fairytales, when it was put to him that his side would need a miracle to qualify for the next round.
"For us, it's about getting the game-plan ready, and then every game we play, we try to win, and that doesn't change tomorrow," he said.
"I don't think anything is impossible," added O'Brien, when asked whether Shels could go through.
Shelbourne need to win by three just to take the game to extra-time and a potential penalty shoot-out, and O'Brien emphasised that the team would need to take a pragmatic approach to the task at hand, and not go gung ho from the opening exchanges against quality opposition, while factoring the conditions into the equation.
And he hopes that his side will have learned from an away game in Zurich last summer, when a first-minute concession made an already difficult task much harder, losing 3-0 on the night.
"It's pretty warm, but to be fair, at the stadium, at this stage (kick-off time), it looks like the sun will be gone down. It's still warm in the air, obviously, but the sun won't be out, so that'll be a plus," said O'Brien.
"In these conditions, you have to play them. Wanting to attack last week and getting on the front foot at home is what we always want to do. Over here, it's got to be a little bit more pragmatic, obviously, and the conditions don't allow that, to be going after [the game], and pressing like mad for the 90 minutes.
"The game plan is to set up to try and win the game, that's the way it's always going to be no matter who we play.
"I suppose the key thing last year to take away was the start we had [in Zurich]. At any level, but especially at this level, and that'll be the same tomorrow, you cannot start off it (the pace of the game) a little bit, or make any individual mistakes at the first part of the game, because you just won't get back into it.
"You're down in the game, so you can't go out and start chomping at the bit, going off on a mad one early doors, because you get picked off at this level.
"Last year we made a critical mistake at the start of the game, that's great learning, and hopefully it doesn't happen tomorrow, because the lads realise from Zürich how damaging that can be and it can turn into a long, long night, if we make that early mistake and the [opposing] team is getting an early goal."
Reflecting on last week's performance, and result, O'Brien appeared a touch rueful coming into the second leg with such a steep mountain to climb, and believes that his side should have been better in that Tolka Park encounter.
"You watch back the game, you review it, I just thought the first half we just weren't at full throttle, to be honest, and we just let them go, showed them a little bit too much respect at home," said O'Brien.
"I think at home, we knew the conditions, we knew the pitch, had the atmosphere, and we were just a little bit passive at times in the first half.
"I thought in the second half, we really got on the front foot, attacked it for large periods, and I thought we were the better team, and just didn't find that equaliser.
"But again, at this level, you've got to be on guard all the time, and that bit of quality that they showed, I suppose, for the second goal, and the third goal, obviously, it's a bad mistake, you know, so again, just being concentrating for the whole game, it's a massive part of this level."
Whatever happens in Baku, O'Brien knows that this is not the end of the road for Shelbourne's 2025 European journey, with a Europa League fixture guaranteed should they exit the Champions League. And there is a sense that O'Brien is emphasising that to his squad, and to use the Qarabag game, whatever the outcome, to learn for whatever comes next down the road this summer
"It definitely is a great experience, regardless of what happens, we're going to be away from home over the next couple of weeks, there's massive games to come.
"So I suppose travelling away and stuff like that, and getting used to the hotel, and getting used to the pitch, that's what part of this is, the experience of the group."
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