With one of Europe’s biggest football clubs returning to Emerald Isle on Thursday, Irish football is in full swing.
AC Milan hopes to have Zlatan Ibrahimovic in a trailer opposed to Shamrock Rovers in the Europa League to qualify for the Italian club’s first competitive match on Irish soil since 1975, when he took a goalless draw in the city of Athlone in Midland.
This is a welcome attention for Ireland, where many enthusiastic brazenly groups from the Premier League and beyond, and remember the 2009 pre-season stopover at Real Madrid, which featured Cristiano Ronaldo’s debut with the Spanish club.
“News coverage, radio communication, sports radio, virtual platforms, podcasts, it’s all about this game,” said Mark Lynch, director of the rover board of directors. “For us as a club, it’s wonderful to listen and see that. The attention has been in incredibly high grades and has spread up close and far. »
The time of classification will take place at an empty stadium in Tallaght, south dublin, according to strict UEFA regulations due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The hoops, technically nicknamed Shamrock Rovers in their classic green and white hoop T-shirts, are the losers; however, the limited calendar of pandemics means only one game, which can give the hosts a boost.
“There’s no fear,” Rovers striker Graham Burke told Irish Football Fan TV on Tuesday. “I don’t see what we’re working on to get into the game. “
“I know it’s AC Milan and everything, other people can’t give us the chance of anything,” Burke said. “We think we could have a chance if we calm down. “
The Irish team has gained momentum. They are comfortably ahead of their national league and are three weeks away from an exciting 12-11 penalty shootout against Finnish club Ilves in the first qualifying round.
Meanwhile, Milan are going to start this season where he left her a few weeks ago: the team won nine of their 12 games after the start of the reget, pulling the other three.
Milan have won all four pre-season games, scoring 16 goals and cons granting five.
This will be the first match of the ECU festival in Milan since the end of 2018. The club served a one-season sanction last year for violating the monetary rules of fair play.
It will also be Ibrahimovic’s first match for Ibrahimovic, 38, with Milan in the Europa League, a festival he won with Manchester United in 2017, and Sandro Tonali could make his debut for the club.
“The first competitive games of the season are imminent,” said Tonali, 20, who joined Brescia this month. “We’re here to face the world. “
Visiting clubs are pocketing revenue from foreign broadcasts, however, in a busy week across Europe, Lynch said the missed opportunity “is less lucrative than some observers would think. “
As a low-budget team, Lynch said he is pleased to have raised more than 200,000 euros ($235,000) for the qualifying circular so far, but they cannot compete on a monetary basis with other people like Milan.
“I probably wouldn’t even guess what the salary levels of the most productive Serie A clubs are or what the team budgets are, but ours would be more modest,” Lynch said.
In 2011, Shamrock Rovers became the first Irish club to succeed at the level of organizing a European fashion competition, Lynch said. The feat matched through Dundalk in 2016.
Milan visited Athlone on the 1975 UEFA Cup crusade, with Giovanni Trapattoni as assistant coach. Trapattoni had a good run as coach of the Irish national team.
“I’m sure this is a wonderful opportunity,” Lynch said. “We have our own great opportunity to come on Thursday. “
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AP editor Daniella Matar in Milan contributed to the report.
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