I’m not Gunner get too excited
Lilies boss turns attention to Harps after Arsenal draw...
haul under I r el and boss Stephen Kenny in 2016.
‘Let’s try to do five points. Let’s beat the record. We have nothing to lose,’ enthused Giovagnoli who has dared his ‘ super excited’ players to ‘dream’ what can be achieved.
‘It’s pure excitement, there is nothing to be afraid of. You have to be afraid if you go to war and you have to kill somebody or be killed. For a football game, no for sure.
‘We need to play with a lot of heart and run a lot and be a little bit crazy and brave but we are going to try. Listen, anything is possible. I am here, I am the proof that anything is possible in life,’ he said.
‘To play against a club like Arsenal, against a coach like (Mikel) Arteta. It’s really exciting to think how you can face them but now I don’t think about that.
For the moment, Giovagnoli’s sole f ocus i s on ensuring Dundalk are qualified f or Europe next season.
‘I’m thinking of the game against Finn Harps. This is our objective now and for us this is a game that is vital for our future. It’s more important Finn Harps than Arsenal.’
Giovagnoli, his staff and players, watched the draw after booking their place with a 3-1 win over KI Klaksvik of the Faroes on Thursday night.
‘The players know we didn’t perform but they fought, the work ethic was there. They gave everything.’
The impact made by Giovagnoli has reverberated in his home village Apecchio, a mountainous commune of 2,000 people at the crossroads of the Marches, Umbria and Tuscany regions. For the annual beer and truffles festival tomorrow, a big screen will show Dundalk’s game against Finn Harps (5.0), slotting in neatly between Lazio v Inter (2.0) and Juventus v Napoli (7.45).
Giovagnoli revealed he received over 200 texts of congratulations, half of them from people he didn’t know.
The knock-on effect of Dundalk’s Europa League engagement on October 22 will see the final round of league games pushed back, probably to Sunday, October 26.
As for the Group B foes, the Gunners, who have never faced Irish opposition before, boast a distinguished Euro record, claiming the Fairs Cup (now Europa League) in 1970 and the Cup Winners Cup in 1994.
Under Arsene Wenger, the club advanced to the knockout rounds of the Champions League every season f rom 2003- 04 until 2016- 17. They contested the 2006 final, losing to Barcelona.
In the Europa League, they were semi- f i nalists i n 2018 before losing to Chelsea in the final 12 months later.
Rapid Vienna are the most decorated club in Austrian football with 32 league titles, the last in 2008. European Cup semi-finalists in 1961, Rapid lost two Cup Winners Cup finals, to Everton in 1985 and PSG in 1996. Molde, then managed by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, saw off Sligo Rovers 3-0 on aggregate in the 2013-14 Champions League qualifiers. DUNDALK’S GROUP B SCHEDULE: October 22 v Molde (H), 5.55pm; October 29 v Arsenal (A) 8pm; November 5 v Rapid Wien (A), 5.55pm; November 26 v Rapid Wien (H), 8pm; December 3 v Molde (A), 8pm; December 10 v Arsenal (H), 5.55pm.
“The players know we did not perform”