UEFA Conference League preview: Shels and Pat's begin second round

Thursday 25 July

UEFA Conference League - Second Round Qualifying first legs
FC Zurich (Switzerland) v Shelbourne, 6pm
St Patrick's Athletic v Vaduz (Liechtenstein), Richmond Park, 7.45pm

Coverage

Live scores and match reports on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app.

And then there were two

St Pat's play their first European game of the season, entering the second round on the basis of being FAI Cup winners.

Shelbourne have already come through one round, seeing off St Joseph's 3-2 on aggregate. It was a stern test of Shels against the Gibraltarian outfit.

Derry City were expected to be in this stage but came unstuck against Bruno's Magpies, also 3-2 on aggregate.

The Saints not marching in

In theory Pat's should be somewhat rested given they skipped the first round and have had little league action.

They were expected to put it up to Derry City in the FAI Cup, yet produced a flat performance against a side that had played 120 minutes days earlier.

Stephen Kenny has not been able to weave his magic yet with two victories in 10 matches.

The Saints boss is beginning to put together his squad and time is certainly on his side.

The Cup exit could see Pat's' season fizzle out and without any real highlight, unless they can produce something in Europe.

It will take a big turnaround to enter the European race again, so this could be the last game from a foreign side in Dublin 8 for some time.

Vaduz are a hard read

Operating in the second division in Switzerland, Vaduz are European regulars.

They were beaten by Neman Grondo last year in surprise result. The previous season they reached the group stages of the Conference League.

Due to the lack of competition, they are annual participants in Europe so little with faze them.

Their last clash