Keith Treacy: Shamrock mustn't shun dark arts at Vikingur

Shamrock Rovers need to be willing to employ the "dark arts" away at Víkingur Reykjavík on Tuesday in order to have the best chance of progressing to the second qualifying round of the Champions League, according to Keith Treacy.

For the second season in a row, the Hoops' opponents in Europe's elite club competition are reigning Icelandic champions.

Last year they fell foul of an impressive Breidablik side. This time round, they will meet a Vikingur team who are top of the Icelandic top flight and six points ahead of Breidablik, with the first leg in Reykjavík on Tuesday night and the return at Tallaght Stadium coming next week.

Progressing to the next stage in the Champions League would allow Rovers to enter the Europa League and Conference League qualifiers at a later round should they eventually drop out of the leading competition.

It's a pathway that played a part in allowing the Dublin club to qualify for the Conference League group stages in the 2022-23 season.

But to do so by overcoming Vikingur over two legs would require Stephen Bradley's side to compromise on their footballing principles.

That is the view of former Republic of Ireland and St Patrick's Athletic winger Treacy as he told this week's RTÉ Soccer Podcast.

"(Vikingur) are obviously a very good team. You've mentioned they've drew with and beat Breidablik. They seem to be a level up and are top of the league," he said.

Listen to the RTÉ Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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