Shamrock Rovers in Europa League Group Stage

Congratulations to The Hoops who are the first Irish team to make it to the Europa League group stage

Plus with no Scotish teams there and they probably had the easier teams to play aswell (apart from Hearts), makes there acheivement more remarkable.

Well done!

Great to see that.

All the best to them.

Magnificent acheivement.........great result against a strong team

From where they were a few years ago (close to liquidation) it is great to see.

Hopefully the draw will be kind to them and they get a few of Europes big boys in the Group Stages. Hopefully my own team Spurs

Congratulations!

Great result for the Rovers. They are now guaranteed at least €1M plus what they get from gates and there's an opportunity to take games to Lansdowne. Fantastic for Rovers and the Irish game as a whole.

Is it really fantastic for Ireland or just for Shams? I'm going to write an article about it in the next day or two. Congrats to Muzza aswell as ex Cork City players Pat Sullivan,Steve O'Donnell and Pat Sullivan.

I think it helps the Irish games as a whole to but just to a lesser exstent to how it helps rovers. Irish teams have been on the edge of a breakthrough for a while now and hopefully now the other teams will see that it can be done and push on from there. The next step now is to get a team in the group stages of the Champions League and hopefully push on from there.

On a side note the gap seems to be rapidly closing between the LOI and the Scottish league and without the old Firm they are at the same level but one league seems to be on the up and the other on the way down.

Indeed Curry, the SPL will be ranked 28th after next year, leading to hundreds of qualification rounds, in fact I think the Vatican City league might be ranked higher.

I wouldn't go quite that far realist. Indeed the SPL is woeful but I don't think one great win for shams means that LOI is now better or closing the gap. The problem for nations as small as Scotland is its population and money. Nowadays cash reigns supreme and if you don't have the population to get the big TV revenue's and create a global interest in your league then there will be a glass ceiling as to how well your clubs will do in Europe.

I would say shams' win is good for the LOI Thom. SR get the main financial benefits but it does raise the profile of the Irish club game.

Its not just one great win but Irish clubs have been getting closer and close to getting to the groups while the scottish clubs have been falling further and further behind the the top and can no longer qualify for a competition they would have a few years ago had ambitions of winning. This has been coming for some team now.

EDIT: I just found this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/14679531.stm

There could be hope for Celtic yet!

I would hope they don't get in via this route. No Scottish team deserves to be anywhere near European competition.

Rovers in group A with Spurs

Group A:
Spurs
Rubin Kazan
POAK
Shamrock Rovers

Very very hard group a win in any of those matchs would be a good result.

Ecstatic about this draw!

Will Rovers home games be at the Aviva?

Said on RTE there could be Lansdowne ties depending on the draw. Spurs should be a definite for that.

Rovers Chairmen said that the Spurs match will be in Lansdowne on SSN