It’s 20 years since Derry City’s memorable UEFA Cup run, and manager Tiernan Lynch would love a similar experience as his side aim to turn around a 3-2 first-leg loss to CSKA Sofia at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium on Thursday night (KO 6.30pm).
In 2006, Stephen Kenny’s side saw off the mighty IFK Gothenburg and Gretna before falling to French giants PSG, and the Belfast man is hoping for another memorable night on Foyleside.
“We’ve be telling the players that no disrespect to CSKA, but it’s not Barcelona we’re playing,” he insisted ahead of the UEFA Europa League first qualifying round second-leg tie.
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“I feel we saw in the last 30 minutes in the first leg in Sofia that we can play at this level and we can compete at this level, so it’s really important that we don’t show any disrespect, but it’s also important that we go into the game and try to impose our game plan.
“There is definitely times where we felt that we could have done better in the first leg.
“You also have to remember that for a lot of our players it was their first time taking part in European football, so now that the monkey is off your back, we hope that we can go and enjoy the game in front of our own supporters.
“As long as we give 100 per cent, then I think we’ll be OK. But as I said I think there’s areas where we can exploit them and if we can show the bravery that we need to show we’ll cause them problems; there’s no doubt about that.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s in our hands, and I think that last goal from James (Olayinka) really gave us a wee bit of a platform now and something for us to really go and get after, but we have to make sure that we manage the game.
“We won’t be defensively minded, because we’re a goal behind, but it’s one of those situations where we don’t want to kill the tie before you get yourself potentially back into the tie and we’re going to be conscious of that.
“I know it’s going to be an electric atmosphere and while you’ll want to go gung-ho and get after them but we have to manage that situation and the players are aware that the tie is 90 plus minutes and as the saying goes ‘you can’t win the game in the opening 10 minutes, but you can lose it’, so it’s playing with our heads as well as our hearts.”
The former Larne boss admits he doesn’t know what system the Bulgarian outfit will play after having two-goal hero Ioannis Pittas and Leandro Godoy up front as a pair in last week’s first leg.
“They have top players that can hurt you, so we have to make sure that we impose our game on them but do it in a sensible way,” he added.
“There was lots of things we learned from the first game. It’s a tie that we feel were very much in but without losing any respect to CSKA, as they are a very good side, they’ve very good players and we know how dangerous they can be, so it’s probably going to be a balancing act from our end.
“We want to implement our own game, but we also have to be very conscious and careful of the threat that they carry and impose, but it’s a tie we’re looking forward to that’s for sure.
“We have to understand the areas where we feel that we can exploit them and we’ve now a little bit more knowledge of their personnel and technically they’re a very good team.
“They’ve some really good footballers and are a real threat, they’ve obviously a couple of players that we expected to play, that didn’t play and we were probably taking a little bit back by the shape that they played, as it wasn’t the shape that we were expecting.
“Who knows what Thursday’s going to bring from their end, but as we’ve talked about with our boys, they’re a couple of elements of our game that we need to get better at; we have to show a little bit more confidence in ourselves and a bit more composure in ourselves.
“Hopefully at home with our own supporters behind us and that intimidation factor that I think the Brandywell will bring, we’ll go into the game with plenty of belief.”
Sofia will be without first-choice goalkeeper Fyodor Lapoukhov and midfielder Maks Ebong, after the Belarusian pair were denied UK visas.
The Candystripes will welcome back duo Brandon Fleming and Adam O’Reilly for tonight’s encounter, and James Clarke may also return from injury, but one man who won’t feature is winger Gavin Whyte.
However, the former Northern Ireland international is expected to return soon after returning to training this week following a long absence.
“Gavin hasn’t had it easy and it’s not really my place to be sitting here talking about him and the personal side of his life,” explained the Belfast native.
“But I’m delighted to see him back in training, in a good place and while he’s a fair bit away fitness-wise, hopefully we can get him back to where he was before.”