Europa Conference League preview: Derry City and Shelbourne aim to progress

Thursday 10 July

UEFA Conference League - First Round Qualifying second legs
St Joseph's (Gibraltar) v Shelbourne - Europa Sports Park, 5pm - Shelbourne lead 2-1
Derry City v FCB Magpies (Gibraltar), Tolka Park, 7.45pm - FCB Magpies lead 2-0

Weather

Derry: There is a chance of rain with a light breeze in the north, with evening highs of 13 degrees.

Gibraltar: Like Derry last week, Shelbourne must cope with high temperatures. However while it was 30 degrees at kick-off time for City, it will a few degrees cooler on this occasion for the Irish side, around 25 but with significant humidity.

State of play from the first leg

Shelbourne bring a one-goal lead to Gibraltar against St Joseph's thanks to a 2-1 victory last week.

That advantage was needed as they deal with the tricky Europa Point Stadium pitch and the heat.

Shels will be confident they can see it out especially if they can score.

For Derry City they need to produce a near flawless display tonight.

The concession of two goals from set-piece deliveries means puts them up against it massively.

This will be Magpies' third European campaign and they have yet to progress in a tie. History awaits them if they can pull off the shock.

There is no doubt Derry have the goalscoring talents. Their current form is a major concern.

As well as losing in Europe, they have slipped three points off the top after going down to a 2-1 defeat in Sligo.

Derry left the Rock in a hard place

No Irish side has come back from a two-goal deficit in Europe, so that is the size of the task for Derry.

Manager Ruaidhri Higgins sees more desire within his players this week.

"If training this week is anything to go by, the hunger in people's eyes, seeing people wanting to put things right makes me think we'll