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BBC News
a day ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Who do Blues, Larne and Swifts face in Europe?
Whilst Cliftonville's European journey came to an end following defeat in extra time by St Joseph's last week, three more Irish Premiership sides remain in the Uefa Conference Cup winners Linfield drop into the second qualifying round of the competition after an aggregate defeat by League of Ireland champions Shelbourne in Champions League progressed to the second round of this competition with a penalty shootout win against Auda in Riga as they aim to reach the league phase of the Conference League for a second successive Swifts, by virtue of winning the Irish Cup, are only entering the Conference League now and are primed for their first European game in over a of all three playing the first legs of their second-round ties on Thursday, BBC Sport NI takes a look at their opponents. Lithuania awaits for Linfield Linfield have only had a week to prepare for their Conference League game against Lithuanian side will be looking to bounce back from the Shelbourne defeat, but it will be a difficult game against a side who have some pedigree in became the first Lithuanian club to qualify for the group stages of a European club competition when they reached the Conference League group stage in finished bottom of their group but managed five points including a win from their six games. Last season's A Lyga champions have struggled this campaign, they currently sit fifth in their domestic league with 20 games first leg is away in Vilnius and kicks off at 17:00 BST on Thursday, with the second leg at Windsor Park next David Healy's side manage to win over the two legs, the Blues will face Vikingur from the Faroe Islands in the next round. Larne host Prishtina at Ballymena Showgrounds Larne will still be on a high from their penalty shootout win against Auda and will be determined to build on that victory as they plot a route back to European league stage football after last year's Rooney's side welcome FC Prishtina to the Ballymena Showgrounds for the first leg which kicks off at 20:00 BST on second leg will take place next Thursday in Pristina and the side that progressed will face the winner of the tie involving Portuguese side CD Santa Clara and Croatian outfit NK Prishtina are the most successful club in Kosovo, having won 11 Kosovan Superleague titles, nine Kosovar Cups and 11 Kosovar are back in European competition for the first time since the 2021/22 campaign after winning the Kosovar Cup final in Kosovan side began in the Europa League but lost 5-2 on aggregate against Moldovan side Sheriff Tiraspol and dropped down the Conference League. Swifts travel to Liechtenstein Dungannon Swifts will be raring to go for their first European tie in 18 years as they travel to Liechtenstein to take on FC Vaduz on Thursday in the first leg of their tie which kicks off at 18:30 Irish Cup winners have twice played in Europe before, when they lost in the 2006 Intertoto Cup to Keflavik IF in the first round and in qualifying for the 2007-08 Uefa Cup, when they were defeated by Lithuanian side FK FC Vaduz are from Liechtenstein, they curiously play in Switzerland, the second tier Challenge League to be exact, after relegation from the Swiss Super League in won the Liechtensteiner Cup final against Balzers to reach the second round of Conference League qualifying. Vaduz made history in 2022 as by beating Rapid Wien they qualified for the group stages of the Conference League, becoming the first ever club from Liechtenstein to reach the group stages of a European club finished bottom of a tough group that included AZ Alkmaar, Apollon Limassol and Dnipro, picking up two points from their six is a potential big prize at stake for the winners of this tie as they could face Dutch giants AZ Alkmaar or Finnish side Ilves in the third Irish Premiership clubs can progress past this round of qualifying then they are potentially four matches away from replicating Larne's historic run to the League stage of the Conference League last season.
BBC News
15-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Glens sign former Crewe Alexandra full-back Cooney
Glentoran have signed former Crewe Alexandra right-back Ryan Cooney on a free 25-year-old defender has agreed a two-year contract with the Irish Premiership has made over 250 senior appearances in English football, having begun his career at Bury, before moving to Morecambe, where he played 128 times and helped the club secure promotion from League Two in joined Crewe before the start of the 2023-24 season, featuring 47 times in his debut campaign and adding a further 43 appearances last term as the club clinched a top-half finish in League Two."Ryan is a player we identified early and carried out detailed background work on before making our move," explained Glentoran manager Declan Devine. "He came highly recommended and the scouting reports, performance analysis and data compiled by our lead analyst all pointed to a player with the quality, mentality and experience to succeed at Glentoran."He has played consistently at a strong level in the English Football League and possesses exactly the type of attributes we want in a player. He is athletic, technically very good and has a real hunger to keep improving and achieve success."Cooney commented: "I am absolutely delighted to join Glentoran. After speaking with Declan and Paul, I was really impressed by the ambition of the club and the clear vision they had for my role in the squad."The addition of Cooney is Glentoran's fifth recruit of the close season with Liam Burt, Jordan Stewart, Daniel Larmour and Pat Hoban having also signed for the east Belfast outfit.
BBC News
11-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Live double-header to kick-off Irish Premiership season
BBC Sport NI will show two live matches during the opening weekend of the Irish Premiership visit to Coleraine will be live on Friday 8 August at 19:45 BST with newly promoted Bangor welcoming Irish Cup runners-up Cliftonville on Sunday 10 August at 15:00 matches will be streamed live on the BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport will be plenty of interest in Coleraine's first game of the campaign with the Bannsiders having signed last season's star performer Joel Cooper from champions Linfield, as well as the likes of Kodi Lyons-Foster and Stephen Fallon. Larne, meanwhile, will again be among the favourites to lift the Gibson Cup after the two-time champions finished runners-up to the Blues last hosting of the Reds at Clandeboye Park represents Lee Feeney's men's first game in the top flight since Saturday 9 August, there will be live coverage of the remaining opening weekend fixtures, including champions Linfield hosting Irish Cup winners Dungannon Swifts, on Radio Ulster's Sportsound along with live text commentary and in-play clips on the BBC Sport NI website.
RTÉ News
09-07-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Joey O'Brien: 'Loads has changed, but not a lot has changed'
Shelbourne manager Joey O'Brien was keen to keep the focus on his players and next week's trip to Windsor Park after enjoying a 1-0 win at home over Linfield in the first leg of their Champions League first qualifying round tie. The spotlight was never far from the dugout during Damien Duff's Tolka tenure, but that won't be the case in Shels' evolution under O'Brien. However, the 39-year-old deserves plenty of plaudits for his half-time intervention as the League of Ireland champions downed the Irish Premiership kingpins. Mipo Odubeko's 58th-minute goal decided the game, with his assist coming from Sean Boyd, who was part of a bold triple substitution just two minutes earlier. "He was a handful when he came on," O'Brien enthused as he spoke to RTÉ Sport after the final whistle. "He did brilliant. "First half, I thought it was a really good performance, we attacked the game really well and created loads of chances. "But as I said to the boys before the game, European football, I always say is four halves of football and sometimes you don't get what you deserve. "That was it, it was just about resetting and attacking the second half. I thought we had chances in the second half and it was great to get the winner." For the second leg, O'Brien indicated that his side wouldn't sit back and defend their lead, and that attack would prove the best form of defence, adding: "We'll be going up there to attack the game, get on the front foot, and dominate and look to win the tie. "As I said, the game is still in the balance and there's everything to play for, so I can't wait for next week." 'The game is well alive' - Shelbourne boss Joey O'Brien's focus has already turned to the second leg against Linfield #rtesport #UCL #LOI — RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) July 9, 2025 For those outside the club, it does seem that the transition to life under O'Brien from his high-profile predecessor has been relatively seamless. Strip away the white noise surrounding Shels in recent weeks and months, and many of the fundamentals remain the same. "Loads has changed, but not a lot has changed," O'Brien said. "You're still getting up every morning, you're still going to work, you're still on the training pitch. "Obviously, we were really well coached, well drilled before the manager left, but it's just to continue on from that and there's a few tweaks here and there. "The one thing that will never change is the intensity of training. Training has been great and I think once your training is really intense and really competitive, that comes out on match night. "It's been great, but it wasn't about me, it was about the lads. I'm just delighted they put in a good performance and got the win tonight." The match represented a first competitive game of the season for Linfield and that was evident throughout the encounter. O'Brien's counterpart David Healy may not have got the result he desired on his trip to the South, but he sounded relatively chipper in his post-match interview and is eyeing major improvement from his charges over the coming week. "I'm pleased with the effort we put into it," he said. "We knew coming into it that in terms of match sharpness and match readiness that we were going to be slightly behind, which we were. "But I can't fault the effort of the players, we dug in. "I think the goal was maybe deflected, from where I was. It was a poor goal. "Obviously any goal is decisive in a game of this magnitude tonight. "The goal was disappointing, but we did so many good things tonight defensively. "If there's any little frustration it's that we had one or two little moments that we didn't quite capitalise on with a finish or a better pass, but we'll be better next week with the ball."
Belfast Telegraph
09-07-2025
- Sport
- Belfast Telegraph
Linfield will come out fighting in Shelbourne second leg, vows manager David Healy
Irish Premier Division winners Shelbourne, now managed by former Bolton and West Ham defender Joey O'Brien, hold a slender 1-0 lead but the Blues remain confident they can turn around this Champions League qualifier. Evan Caffrey twice came close to breaking the deadlock before Shelbourne's 21st minute penalty for a Ben Hall handball was overturned with the help of VAR. After the break, Shelbourne broke the deadlock when Mipo Odubeko found the bottom corner with a fine finish on 51 minutes. The second leg takes place at Windsor Park on July 16. 'When you lose at Linfield it is always disappointing,' reflected Healy. 'Albeit, I have huge respect to Joey and his team – I thought they were very good. 'The level of opposition we were facing in our first competitive game was a challenge. They keep the ball well and we had to give up something. 'In general play our goalkeeper (Chris Johns) didn't have that much to do. 'I'm pleased that we are well in the tie and the players will be much better next week in terms of fitness. 'We have a competitive game under our belt, we gave up a goal and we will try to get that back.' Shelbourne, who secured a first League title in 18 years in 2024, were competing in the Champions League for the first time in two decades. Having won the Irish Premiership by 22 points last season, Linfield returned to Europe's premier club competition after a two-year absence. Shels bossed most of the game but Healy was relieved his side dealt with the majority of threats. 'Our midfield was tested and were tired,' added Healy. 'Jamie's (Mulgrew) contribution was vital and it is one area of the pitch we are a bit light. 'We can beef up the midfield next week. Shels dominated the possession and scored but we had our moments. 'Shels were always going to dominate the ball. I will not say we will chase the game next week. We can't be all guns blazing but the players will be fitter and sharper. 'They will love coming to Windsor, which is like a bowling green, but we have good attacking options. The tie is still in the balance. We will be sensible in our set up and aim to press them.' Match winner Odubeko was impressed with Linfield and he knows the tie is not over. 'They made it tough for us and I think it will be an even tougher game next week,' he said. 'The tie is far from over. We will prepare for next week and we have a job to do. 'We had enough chances to score more goals but we have one and all focus turns to next week. 'It's been tough for the lads with external talk over the last few weeks but the boys have been focused and I'm really proud of them. 'These are games we are capable of winning and our focus is on that.' The winners will face Azerbaijan club Qarabag in the second qualifying round, with the losers dropping into the UEFA Conference League second round to play the defeated side between FK Zalgiris of Lithuania and Hamrun Spartans of Malta.
