Irish side Dundalk qualify for Europa League group stages

Dundalk secured a famous 3-1 victory against Ki Klaksvik from The Faroe Islands in their one-legged play-off match on a rainy night at Lansdowne Road in Dublin.

The pot of gold reward for Dundalk at the end of the Europa League qualification rainbow was a guaranteed minimum €3m from UEFA (with the potential for significantly more dependent on their performance in the group stages).

It is a fantastic achievement for an Irish league side to qualify for the group stages, especially when you consider the stature of the teams who failed to make it through their qualifiers such as Rosenborg, Legia Warsaw, Sporting Lisbon and Galatasaray.

Sean Murray netted after half an hour for the home side before Daniel Cleary double Dundalk’s lead just after half-time. Just when it was looking comfortable for the hosts Klaksvik got back into the game through a goal from Ole Erik Midtskogen in the 66th minute.

It was a nervy next 15 minutes for Dundalk as their Faroese opponents threw everything at them. However Dundalk weathered the storm and Daniel Kelly restored their two-goal advantage with 10 minutes left to play.

Dundalk’s Italian interim head coach Filippo Giovagnoli said after the match “The feeling is unbelievable now, I’m just a little bit upset with the performance and it could have been better, but tonight we were so nervous, we were feeling the game so much. I like the club, it has a lot of potential and we are going to try and make something special.”

Dundalk have been drawn against Arsenal, Rapid Vienna and Molde in Group B of the Europa League.

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