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Home-field advantage as great upper hand for Shamrock

The Rovers are still undefeated home this season and even though they will give in sooner or later, it will be very surprising if that should happen today. The visitors's advantage is the fact they don't have to win at any cost - any kind of a draw other than a goalless draw would work for them

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Everything is still possible after the first leg game between Shamrock and Progres that took place last week. They played a goalless draw, with which the Irish team was, let's say, sort of happy.

- The most important thing is that we didn't lose even though we would have preferred to score. We had some good attempts early on and we could have taken the lead, which would have demoralize the opponent for sure.  But we failed to do so and then we got in a few tricky situations in the second half. Our goal keeper saved us there a few times - the Rovers' coach Fenlon said. He had to comment on the very tough conditions in which the game was played (''I was in some hot places like Ljubljana or Split but I have never experienced such high temperatures'').

He said he hopes the situation with injuries will improve before the second leg:

- It's good that we now know the opponents and know their shortcomings. But I'm sure they think alike. The will try and score in the second leg to get things complicated. I hope some important players are to recover from their injuries in time. It's good that we have no league games over the weekend, which will give us time to prepare well.

The players Fenlon was referring to are center back Kenna and midfielder McPhail but there is no information yet on whether he'll have them back today. The greates threat for Progress should once again be their top scorer Drennan, who draws optimism from the fact the Tallaght Stadium is very hard to conquer:

- We are undefeated home this season and that gives us confidence. I'm sure our fans will be a great support and like that, we have a great chance to win.

Progres had mixed feelings about the first-leg match. On the one hand, they were happy to prove they are not here by accident but on the other one, they were very sorry about not taking any kind of a lead to Dublin.

- I'm a bit frustrated about not winning. Except for the first 20 minutes, we were the better team but we lacked a bit more determination to settle the game. We definitely could have scored a few times - coach Ciancanelli said. Club president added:

- We would have taken that result before the game anytime but now we feel like we should have won and we simply cannot shake that feeling. Either way, we have to go to Ireland without any fear. If we play our game, we can win there. It's important to believe it can be done. 

In order for Progres to win, their defense will first and foremost have to do a very good job. That makes team captain Rigo's injury a great problem. He got injured last week and seems to be in for a month-long break. Better efficiency is expected in offense and one of the players in charge for it will be Giuseppe Rossini:

- The result we brought with is active and we stand a chance of advancing through. I hope we won't have to think about what we missed out in the first game in the end.