Bradley belief offers optimism for Hoops' Euro campaign

Stephen Bradley believes that Molde are the best team in the group, he acknowledges that Djurgardens will be deemed favourites in the opener, however, the Shamrock Rovers manager expects his team to be competitive and win games having, qualified for the Europa Conference League group stages.

The League of Ireland back-to-back champions made it through to the high-profile stage of the competition off the back of an impressive series of European encounters throughout the summer and find themselves in a quartet alongside Norwegian league leaders Molde, Gent from Belgium and visitors to Tallaght Stadium for tomorrow night's opening encounter, Djurgardens of Stockholm in Sweden.

Six games over the coming months with the top two sides making it through to the knock-out phase, and while the Dublin club are widely considered to be an underdog in terms of qualifying from Group F, their manager is brimming with belief ahead of the six-game series.

Bradley spoke before about Rovers not being there to make up the numbers in the tournament, and he re-emphasised that with composed conviction on the eve of the visit of the Swedish side to what should be a jam-packed Tallaght Stadium.

"We believe we can win games in this group," said Bradley, speaking at the pre-match press conference.

"Is it going to be difficult? Yes. Is it against good teams, big clubs? Yes. But at the end of the day, it is 11 men against 11 men on the pitch and we believe we can win games in this group.

"You need certain things to go your way, but we believe we can go and win games.

"We know these are a difficult team, a good side, but we believe that when we hit our levels we can cause any team problems and hurt any team. And Djurgardens will be no different."

Rovers