They go again!
It’s been mere hours since Stephen Kenny guided his Dundalk charges to an unforgettable 3-0 victory over BATE Borisov in Tallaght Stadium, meaning the Lilywhites are just 180 minutes away from the Champions League group stages.
Dundalk have guaranteed Europa League football for themselves, at the very least, after a David McMillan double and a late Robbie Benson nerve-settler downed the Belarusian champions 3-1 on aggregate.
But Kenny is not content to settle for a place in Europe’s second-tier. He wants the bright lights of the Champions League and he has insisted that there will be no resting on their laurels as Dundalk aim to continue to build on their league momentum when they visit Galway on Friday night.
“It’s a special night,” Kenny said. “For us to get through that round, from where we’ve come from with the league… We’re in the fourth round now so we want to go into the Champions League and that’s the way we should look at it.
"We want to go into the Champions League" – Stephen Kenny is already looking ahead! #LOIinEurope #DUNvBATE https://t.co/DPdSBxulkM
— eir Sport (@eirSport) August 2, 2016
“We are delighted because we know we’re in the group stages of European competition which is amazing for a club with the facilities we have and a club our size. To be in the group stages of European competition with all those massive clubs is a bit special.
“Now that we’re in the fourth round of the Champions League, we have to start thinking about getting into the Champions League now because they are in it for the last five years and they beat Roma and they drew with Bayern.
“They’re a good team and we played them off the park tonight overall.
“I feel that we shouldn’t limit ourselves to thinking ‘that’s it’, we have to see what the draw brings on Friday. We’ve no time to celebrate this, we’re playing in two-and-a-half days.
“We’ve a three-and-a-half hour trip to Galway on Friday morning to play Galway in the league.”
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