Kickoff on MD5 of the UECL is at 17.45 Irish time. The match will be shown live on Premier Sports

Ahead of the tie, Stephen Bradley spoke to shamrockrovers.ie

Our fourth Conference League phase game ended with an unlucky 2-1 defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk in Tallaght two weeks ago. Having reviewed the game and the stats, despite losing the game, how good a performance was it against a very good Shakhtar team?

“It was a brilliant performance. I think when you take everything into consideration, it was a really high level performance. When you’re frustrated that you haven’t come away from the game with a point, that tells you everything you need to know. I thought a few big decisions went against us on the night, it’s hard to take when you look at what happened in Athens. But I couldn’t fault the players, I felt that after the game and when we reviewed and went through it, the feeling was still the same.”

Given the Shakhtar game was 18 days since our last game in the FAI Cup Final win, our fitness levels must’ve really pleased you in how we kept going to the very last whistle.

“I know this group, I know what gets them going. So I knew their fitness wouldn’t be an issue. We’ve had it before and dealt with it really well. The players are fit and strong, play alot of games throughout the year. So you don’t lose that overnight and I knew they’d be in a good place. It was just more so a case of their physical and mental sharpness when not playing competitively. So we had to be careful with that early in the Shakhtar game, in every way, in terms of our decision making and in and out of possession. I thought once we slowly came into the game, we gave a brilliant account of ourselves. We started ok but were excellent for large parts of the game.”

So this week sees our final away game of this phase, against a team we played over two legs in a Champions League qualifier in 2023, Breidablik from Iceland. We lost 1-0 at home and 2-1 away then. Are Breidablik a different team now to 2023 or what is their current set-up and style?

“They’re slightly different. They’ve got alot of the same players, but good players and you can see that again. They’re a team that when you watch them, are really positive in how they play the game, very attacking. So it has the makings to be a really good game. We’re looking at it as a game where we want to get three points and I’m sure Breidablik are looking at it exactly the same.”

Breidablik have two home draws and two away defeats so far in the Conference League Phase, so they will be still optimistic they can, like us, yet make the knockout stage. Is it a case of everything to play for in Thursday’s game?

“Yes it is and I think you’ll see that, where both teams will have a go. As I said, they would have looked at ourselves and thought this is a game where they could target a win and we’re similar. So with two teams of a similar level, it should be a good game.”

Josh Honohan and Aaron McEneff missed the Shakhtar game due to injury. Are they available for Thursday? Any other injuries or suspensions?

“Both Josh and Aaron will still be out and obviously Danny Mandroiu is long-term. We have no suspensions and everyone else is fine.”