Rogers insists FH will

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE DRAW

GARY Rogers has previous when it comes to beating Icelandic opposition in Europe and he is hoping Dundalk can repeat the feat when they go head to head with FH Hafnarfjarðar next month.

The 34-year-old goalkeeper was part of the St Patrick’s Athletic side ÍBV Vestmannaeyjar on away goals in the Europa League in 2012. It was the start of a run that saw the Inchicore side go on to beat Bosnian side Siroki Brijeg in the second qualifying round before Hannover 96 eventually ended their involvement in the competition with a 5-0 aggregate victory.

Rogers feels that a similar good European run is possible at Oriel Park this season but while he was pleased with Monday’s draw and feels it gives Stephen Kenny’s side a fantastic chance to progress in the competition, he insists FH cannot be taken lightly.

‘In a way it’s a good draw because if you look at the co-efficient they’re

probably one of the lower ranked teams we could have got in our section,’ he said.

‘It gives us a reasonable chance of getting through but you never get an easy game in Europe. We’ll look forward to it and we’d certainly feel we have a good chance of getting through because they’re not as strong as BATE Borisov last year. Having said that you have to give them massive respect because they’ve won their league something like seven out of the last 12 times so they’ll be certainly no pushovers.’

While Iceland are doing well in the European Championship in France at present, like Ireland there are no domestic players in their squad. However, Rogers knows the good standard of Icelandic football and insists it is every bit as good as what is on offer in the League of Ireland.

‘We played IBV when I was at Pat’s. We got beat 1-0 over there and then we beat them in Inchicore 2-1 so I’ve experienced the standard of opposition.

‘I think Celtic knocked out an Icelandic team last year but you never really know what to expect. There will be a lot of players

from different parts of the world playing for them as well. There’s a good few English players in the Icelandic league so it will be a good standard. They’re the champions of their country so they’re not going to be pushovers.

‘I don’t think there’s too many in the Icelandic league in the national team. It’s the same case here where a lot of our players play in England and all over the place so I think it’s the same there. Having said that, I feel our league is a very strong league even though there’s no internationals playing in it but it’s still a good league and a good standard and I’m sure theirs is the very same.’

Unlike last season, this time around Dundalk will be at home first but Rogers doesn’t know if that represents an advantage or not for a team who have traditionally saved their best performances in Europe for away matches.

‘It’s hard to know with games, you just take them as they come,’ he said.

‘If you were away first you’d be saying it’s great to be away first. It’s important that we play well here first and foremost. They may come here and sit in a little bit because they’ll be looking for the away goal but if we really go at them and play the way we can then we have a great chance.’

The Meathman admitted, however, that Dundalk had some homework to do on their opponents, who might have a slight edge in that regard given that former Lilywhites player Steven Lennon is amongst their ranks.

‘I’m sure they’ll be tapping into that knowledge all right, the fact that he would know a bit about our league. I’m sure he knows about some of the players that he would have played against but it’s all about what happens on the day.

‘I think having the opportunity to go and see them is massive because we obviously don’t know much about them. It’s the same the other way, they’ll be able to come look at us because we’ve three games before we play them. They’ll do their home-