Barry Murphy: Shamrock Rovers favourites at Windsor Park but Larne will fancy chances

Shamrock Rovers will go in as slight favourites for their UEFA Conference League match against Larne on Thursday but former Hoops goalkeeper Barry Murphy has warned that their opponents have the quality to fancy their own chances of victory at Windsor Park.

Larne's involvement in this season's league phase is the first ever by a Northern Irish club in a European competition proper. Conversely, this is Rovers' third go at a group stage or league phase, having featured in the Europa League in 2011-12 and the Conference League two years ago.

Larne, who have enjoyed a meteoric rise since the 2017 takeover by boyhood fan Kenny Bruce, lost their opening league phase match 3-0 away at Norwegian side Molde, whereas ten-man Shamrock Rovers earned a 1-1 draw at home to Cypriot champions APOEL.

The revamped nature of the league phase means 24 of the 36 teams involved in the opening stage will advance to the next round and the Larne match - as well as the subsequent home fixture against Wales' The New Saints - have been billed as real opportunities for Rovers to boost their hopes of becoming the first League of Ireland side to reach a knockout stage in Europe.

But while Murphy believes Stephen Bradley's side will have the edge going up to Belfast - where Larne will play home games instead of their own Inver Park - he expects Tiernan Lynch's charges will be just as confident of getting a result against Rovers.

"Getting any sort of points in Europe is tough and this is probably the first time in a while that Shamrock Rovers will be... probably just slight favourites for this game but that doesn't matter in Europe," Murphy told the RTÉ Soccer Podcast.

"Shamrock Rovers have been the underdogs in a lot of games in Europe, got points and got