Shamrock Rovers ready to resume European fairytale journey in Norway

Shamrock Rovers are ready to pick up the UEFA Conference League baton once again and continue their fairytale voyage into the unknown territory that is the knock-out stages of European competition.

Rovers are the first League of Ireland team to extend their European campaign beyond the end of the calendar year, and they now face Norwegian side Molde for a place in the last 16 of the competition.

Stephen Bradley's side’s pre-Christmas campaign in the league phase was so impressive that they remarkably just missed out on an automatic place in the next round, which would have come with a top-eight finish.

As it turned out, Rovers ended the six-match shoot-out with the same amount of points as eighth-place Cercle Brugge, but like Jagiellonia Bialystok and APOEL Nicosia, they ended up with an inferior goal difference to the Belgian side as Bradley’s team took tenth place in the 36-team league.

But it still sent the Hoops into the knockouts as one of the top-seeded sides and as a result they got drawn against the 23rd-ranked Molde who secured safe passage with seven points.

Following a run of three home and three away games against different opposition, it’s back to the traditional European format of the two-legged tie as the two sides meet for the first game in Molde tonight.

With both teams coming into the contest in pre-season mode, it will be interesting to see which of the sides have improved most since signing off in December.

The Norwegians, who have been a strong European presence over the last decade, had a poor league campaign and failed to challenge for the title, and as a result, they are coming into the 2025 season under new management.

Per-Mathias Hogmo has taken over as head coach having spent last year in Japan, while