General
- Tuesday July 5th, 2016 @ 16:08
Europa League Team News: AS Jeunesse Esch Vs SAINTS (0-1 Agg, 5.45pm Irish Time)
St Patrick's Athletic have landed in Luxembourg ahead of their UEFA Europa League First Qualifying Round second leg tie against AS Jeunesse Esch TONIGHT (Kick-Off 6.45pm Local time; 5.45pm Irish time).
The Saints head into the game with a one goal lead thanks to Christy Fagan's goal from last Tuesday's 1-0 victory in Richmond Park; the striker becoming the all-time top-scorer for the club in European competition after scoring his fifth goal in Europe for St Pat's.
Ahead of travelling to Luxembourg for the game, Saints' manager Liam Buckley caught up with stpatsfc.com and outlined that his side would only be without the services of midfielder Jack Bayly who remains unavailable through injury.
"Looking back on last week's result, you've got to be happy any time you get a win in Europe. Jeunesse are a good side and showed that last week. That being said, we know we can play better and our general play can improve a lot," Buckley admitted.
"Jeunesse aren't in the middle of their season like ourselves at present, but they only finished in May so I wouldn't read into things like that an awful lot. Both teams now know an awful lot about each other compared to last week so we can expect them to cause problems for us."
With a one goal lead heading into the game, Buckley emphasised the need for the Saints to approach no different to any other, with the goal to try and win the game and the 90 minutes ahead.
"It's great to have a lead heading into this second leg, and the clean sheet last week was crucial. The away goal is always crucial in the Europa League and we know if we can get one, it could go a long way to getting through. However we've just got to approach the game as we normally would; get out and play our game and get our passing and overall rhythm going."
"If we do that, there's no reason why we cannot progress to the next round."
Saints' winger Conan Byrne is no stranger to European football having appeared for Sporting Fingal in the Europa League in 2010 and having played for the Saints for the past four season in Europe, scoring an away goal in the club's 2-2 away leg to VMFD Zalgiris of Lithuania in 2013.
Speaking to stpatsfc.com ahead of facing AS Jeunesse Esch, he echoed the sentiments of his manager, admitting that the Inchicore side need to apply the right mindset tonight.
"Last week we went about things right. The early goal helped and we looked to get that second goal following on from that and were a little unlucky not to score. They stepped it up a bit in the second half and we did well to weather the storm and went close to getting that second goal."
"If we can apply ourselves right on the night, we can get through this tie."
